Nighthawks
by The Cocky Undead
Summary: Rick Castle is looking forward to a relaxing evening with Beckett. Unfortunately, his brother didn't get the memo.
1. Hawks in the Night

**[Hawks in the Night]**

Rick Castle was in a good mood. Alexis and his mother were out for the evening and Kate had agreed to come over and watch a marathon of the Die Hard movies with him. He had to keep telling himself that it wasn't a date; it was just a friendly movie watching between friends, but that didn't stop the excitement from bubbling over.

Castle had been preparing for this movie night all afternoon, making sure that the house was cleaned and that he had a full stock of popcorn and beer.

Castle had just finished popping the popcorn all knowing that Kate would be getting here at any time.

The door bell rang. Castle put the bowl of popcorn on the counter and cleaned his hands calling, "I'm coming!"

Grinning Castle went to the door. Grasping the handle, he pulled it open saying, "It's about time, Beckett! I was about to send out my dogs to come find you!" He trailed off as he saw who was standing in the landing. The man had his head down and Rick couldn't see his face. He was wearing a dark leather jacket, that looked wet, but Rick didn't think that it had been raining outside and worn jeans. The man looked up and grinned, his blue eyes sparkling.

"Heya, Rick. Long time no see."

"Clint?" Rick stuttered out, hands automatically reaching out to his little brother. Clint flinched a little at the contact, but allowed himself to be guided into the house and into the kitchen.

"I haven't seen you in years! Where've you been?" Rick said his voice rising as Clint took a seat on one of the kitchen stools, wincing as he did so.

Clint raised his hands trying to calm his older brother down. "I needed to figure some stuff out on my own." Rick was staring with horror at Clint's hand. Confused Clint glanced at his palm. Blood was dripping down from his finger tips to his wrist, a ruby stain against his hand.

"Shit." He muttered and hurriedly wiped his palm against his jeans, leaving another trail of blood on one pant leg.

"Clint…" Rick murmured, concern bleeding through his voice. "Are you hurt? Did something happen to you?" Clint glanced down at his wet side and shrugged.  
"I've had worse." Rick took two steps forward and jerked Clint's jacket up to reveal an ugly knife wound across his ribs. Rick let out a strangled yelp, jumping away from his seated brother.

"What do you mean you've had worse?" Rick hissed, "What have you gotten yourself into?" Clint waved away Rick's questions.

"Get a needle and thread. And some whiskey." Rick tried to stare down his little brother, but obviously Clint had greatly improved in that area since he last saw him. Rick averted his gaze and went to get what Clint had asked for.

When he returned back to the kitchen, Clint's head was poked into the fridge. He resurfaced with a cold Fat Tire in his hand. Popping the cap, he took a long swig of the liquid.

Rick slammed down the items onto his counter with more force than necessary and glared at Clint.

Clint grinned back with recklessness that Rick remembered well. Rick crossed his arms while Clint doused his wound with the whiskey and though Rick wouldn't admit it he was impressed that Clint didn't make a sound when the burning liquid came into contact with his open wound.

Rick watched with a morbid fascination as Clint slowly stitched himself up. The job was done in a precision that Rick remembered Clint having. All in all it was a quick and clean job.

Dropping the bloody needle back onto the counter, Clint went to the sink and washed the blood off his fingers and hand. He watched the blood swirl down the drain before he turned off the stream of water. He turned back to his brother, who hadn't said a word throughout his stitching of his wound.

"What are you doing here?" Rick finally asked his voice quiet. He hadn't seen Clint in fifteen years and then suddenly out of the blue, his younger brother shows up at his door with a f**king knife wound. Rick felt that he deserved some answers.

"I needed your help…for my knife scratch." Cocky grin. Rick ignored it.

"You obviously know how to patch yourself up. You didn't need me."

"I haven't seen you in years." Clint tried again enjoying his little game with Rick.

"Bullshit. You could have picked up the phone and called." A new thought occurred to Rick. "Does mom know you're here?" Clint's face went from grinning and cocky to emotionless in less than a second.

"No. No, she doesn't and it's gonna stay that way." His voice was hard and serious. "I shouldn't even be here. Fury told me that it was stupid and reckless." Clint muttered the last part to himself. "He's gonna tear me a new one when I get back." Rick frowned. Who was Fury?

"Why would you listen to someone telling you that you can't see your own brother?" Rick asked with some anger tingeing his words. Clint blinked and seemed to remember where he was and who he was talking to.

He limped over to Rick's large window. Pushing the gauzy drapes aside he glanced out into the night.

There was a sudden wail of a siren and Clint jerked his head back. Rick frowned.

"What have you gotten yourself into?" He demanded following Clint to the window. He stopped a few feet away. Clint again pushed the question aside with a wave of his hand.

Rick tried again. "I've got friends in the police force. I can help you get out of whatever mess you're in." Clint snorted slightly.

"It's actually because of one of your friends that I'm here." He said. Rick opened his mouth to ask another question, but Clint cut him off.

"I don't have time to answer your questions. I came here to tell you something important." He gazed at his brother with an uncharacteristic seriousness. "You've got to stop Kate Beckett from hunting into her mother's death anymore. She doesn't know who she's dealing with." That shut Rick up. "But don't worry." Clint continued. "Cause I've got it under control. I'll make sure that the sick bastard gets what's coming for him. You have my word."

There was a knock at Castle's door. Clint smiled. "That would be the lady herself." Rick seemed torn, wanting to open the door and let Kate deal with his little brother, but also wanting to stay and force the truth out of Clint.

Clint unlatched the window's lock, swinging the window wide. He stuck one booted foot out the window and into the night.

Rick let out a strangled cry and rushed toward him, thinking that Clint was either completely crazy or on drugs, maybe both.

Clint held up a warning hand stopping Rick.

"I got this. I know what I'm doing. They don't call me the Hawk for nothing." He let out a small chuckle. Another knock at the door. Castle ignored it.

There was a small buzzing noise and Clint lifted a hand to his right ear.

"Sir?" He asked, his voice showing nothing but respect. "Yessir. No, I'm not. Yeah, okay. I'm on my way." Clint turned to his brother and smiled.

"You better let the lady in before she breaks down your door." Rick glanced at the door and then back to the window. Clint was gone.

In a daze Castle went to his front door and opened it for Kate Beckett. Her face showed worry, but then relief when Castle finally swung the door open.

"What's going on? Why did you take so long to open the door?" She asked with her usually no nonsense attitude, striding into the house.

Castle mumbled something inaudible, following her in.

Beckett rubbed her arms, shivering slightly.

"Do you have the window open? You know it's only the beginning of spring, right?" She grinned, but Castle merely nodded. Kate was suddenly concerned.

"Are you okay?" She asked, but then spotted the bloody needle and bottle of half empty jack sitting on the counter.

"Castle! What happened!" She dashed over to Castle trying to see if he had any injures on him, but didn't see any. He shrugged.

"Don't worry it's not my blood…I had a visitor…" She waited for more. Luckily Castle was saved the trouble of having to answer, when her phone went off.

"Beckett." Silence. "Yessir. I'm on my way." Castle knew from her tone that there had been a murder and he was already getting his coat.

Beckett turned the phone off. "There was a murder a few blocks away. Man with a knife. From what I was told, he looks like he was shot…with an arrow." Castle swallowed and paused as he buttoned up his wool jacket. He got the feeling they weren't going to solve this one easily.

* * *

**A/N: So I came up with this idea when I was cleaning a house, which kinda weird, but I think about a lot of strange things when I clean.  
Maybe it's just me, but I think that Jeremy Renner and Nathan Fillion look sorta similar (It's probably just me). Anyway, as soon as I thought about that, this story popped out.  
**

**I hope you enjoyed this! Please let me know what you thought!  
**


	2. Clint's mess

**[Clint's mess] **

Castle was nervous the whole ride to the crime scene. Beckett could hear his foot bouncing up and down, tapping away. He kept talking about nonsense, probably trying to keep Beckett from asking any more questions about his visitor.

She knew something was bothering him, but she didn't say anything. She did, however, think long and hard about Castle's "visitor", the one who had left the blood all over the counter. Beckett frowned. Thinking about it now, there hadn't been a lot of blood. Whoever had been injured had been tidy, which meant that either the person was in law enforcement or was the opposite of cops…or, she supposed, the person could have been in the medical field.

Beckett glared at the traffic ahead of her car and leaned on the horn.

There were too many things that the person could have been. She glanced at Castle again. Why didn't' he just tell her who it had been? Didn't he trust her?

Beckett pulled up to the crime scene, which was surrounded by flashing blue and red lights. She killed the engine and got out of her car.

Striding up to the dead body, Beckett tried to stop thinking about Castle and his mysterious visitor and focus on the matter at hand.

She met Lanie as she pulled on a pair of blue gloves.

"Did you find out anything else about our vic, other than the fact that he was killed by an arrow?" Beckett asked a grim smile tugging at her lips. How does someone get shot by an arrow in the middle of New York City?

She crouched down near the body, her hands resting on either knee. All other noises and images faded into the background as she focused on the dead body in front of her.

The man was slumped to the dirty cement, lying on his side with a black arrow protruding from his neck. The blood was pooled around the man's head around, looking like a puddle of water. Beckett's eyes focused on the knife clenched the dead man's hand. It was a military issue KA Bar. The blade was stained with dark blood. The man himself wore normal everyday clothes: Jeans, shirt and jacket. Nothing about the man suggested any reason for him to be murdered, but, Beckett supposed, who knew why human beings killed one another.

Beckett stood back up and turned to Esposito and Ryan, who had just walked up to her and had been waiting for her. She pulled off her gloves as she asked, "Do we have any finger prints or DNA from the blood on the knife? It looks like our vic got his attacker with his knife before he got shot….with an arrow." Beckett frowned again. Weren't bow and arrows long range weapons? But then again guns could be used at close range as well as long range.

"Actually, yes." Ryan said, looking down at the clipboard in his hands. "We got fingerprints on the arrow." Beckett looked at Ryan, surprised. There was hardly ever a murderer that was stupid enough to leave his (or her) fingerprints all over the murder weapon.

"Are you running them?" She asked. Ryan nodded, but Esposito interjected.

"But we won't get a name for a few hours at least." Beckett sighed, but gave a nod. It always took some time for the prints to come back.

"Castle," She asked suddenly. Castle jumped a little. He had been standing next to her the whole time, not making a sound, which unusual considering this was Castle.

"What do you think?" She asked him, "Psycho Robin Hood or Legolas?" She smirked a little. Castle gave a shrug.

"Probably just some crazy person that thinks he's Robin Hood." Beckett frowned. Castle wasn't usually like this. He was the one that came up with all the ridiculous ideas for who the killer was and she was the one that reined him back to Earth.

Castle turned his back to her and walked away from the crime scene to the edge of the yellow tape. He ducked under it and waited for her to come up next to him.

"Are we going into the office tonight?" He asked once she stood next to him again. Beckett shrugged.

"I guess it depends on how soon those prints will ready." She said. "If they can get them to us by tonight, then yes I'm going in to the office, but you don't have to come with, Castle."

Castle was already shaking his head. "No, I'll come with you." Beckett smiled a little. She had been hoping that he would say that. A little company in the near empty office would be nice.

* * *

Five hours later and the prints were almost done being run. Beckett, Castle, Ryan and Esposito had spent those hours putting together what they could of their murder board and talked through possible scenarios that could have happened to their victim.

But now, they were all exhausted and were all lounging in their respective chairs, waiting for those prints.

The sun was getting ready to come up and the sky was turning grey. Other officers were making their way into the office ready for their day to begin.

There was a sudden beeping from Ryan's computer. Castle and Beckett sprang from their chairs and hurried over to where Ryan and Esposito were now crowding around Ryan's computer.

"Looks like we got a match." Ryan said, trying to navigate the mouse to see the picture of the man, who had left the arrow in the body. The computer let out an indignant beep and large flashing letters were displayed covering the man's entire face.

The word was boldly stating: Classified, in bright red letters.

"What the hell is this?" Beckett exclaimed, pounding her palm into the back of Ryan's chair. Ryan flinched.

The others were silent after Beckett's outburst, but they were just as frustrated by this turn in events.

"Screw this." Beckett suddenly said. "I'm going to talk to Montgomery and we'll find this son of a bitch, one way or another."

* * *

"What do you mean that we're not allowed access to view the man's file?" Beckett said furiously. "He murdered our victim! He needs to be brought to justice."

Montgomery sighed and laced his hands together, resting them on his desk.

"I'm sorry, Beckett, this isn't my call. This came from way high. Castle even said the mayor wasn't able to convince them to allow you access to the man's file." Beckett clenched her fists down at her side.

"What about our victim? Who's going to take care of that?" Montgomery cringed a little. He had been hoping that Beckett wouldn't ask that.

"They're sending someone down to take care of the mess." Beckett's pretty lips pressed together in a thin line. Not only were they hindering her investigation, they were now sending someone else down to take her case from her.

"Captain." She said her voice low, but hinting of pent up anger. "May I be excused?" Montgomery nodded his permission.

Beckett wrenched the door open, but refrained my slamming it behind her. Castle was waiting outside the Captain's office. He fell into step with her as she stormed down the hall to where the elevators waited.

"How'd it go?" Castle asked. Beckett punched the 'down' button on the elevator and didn't answer him.

"That well, huh?" Castle said.

"Castle?"

"Yep."

"Don't speak to me right now."

"Roger that. Shutting up."

* * *

Natasha Romanoff adjusted the files in her arms as she entered the police station. Though she looked calm and vaguely lost on the outside, on the inside Natasha was fuming and knew exactly where she was going in the police station.

Of course Fury had sent her to take care of Clint's mess. Whenever he disobeyed an order from Fury, Natasha was always called to deal with whatever body he had left in his wake. And there was almost always a body. Clint was too damn trigger happy with that bow of his.

Her high heels clicked against the tile floor, echoing in the room and attracting admiring looks from several men in the room. Natasha ignored them.

Why did they call her? Didn't they have junior agents for this type of thing?

She sighed and pushed a loose strand of her flaming red hair behind her ear.

The elevator door she had stopped in front of dinged and opened, but before Natasha could step on board two people brushed past her, a man and a woman.

"Castle, what did I just say?" The woman was saying as she spared Natasha a glance before eyeing her partner again. They moved past Natasha and out the police doors.

Automatically, Natasha's mind supplied the names of both of them.

Richard Castle, brother to Clint Barton, professional writer, currently a consultant for the New York Police Department.

Kate Beckett, wealthy family, mother was murdered, a homicide detective for the NYPD.

Natasha frowned as she punched the floor number. It glowed brightly and the doors slid shut. From what she had read about Kate Beckett, she knew it wasn't going to be easy pushing her away from a murder investigation. Especially, if she knew that Castle was involved. There was no doubt in Natasha's mind that Beckett would figure out that Castle was related to the killer.

She sighed and rubbed her temples. This was probably going to be a harder assignment than she originally thought. Though, everything that Clint did was complicated and a messy.

For the tenth time that day she cursed Clint's name and wished that Fury had assigned someone else to deal with this.

* * *

Beckett frowned at Castle as they walked out of the elevator brushing past a stunning red haired woman.

"Castle, what did I just say?" Castle wasn't listening as his head turned so that his eyes were trained on the red haired woman.

"Whaa…"

Beckett rolled her eyes.

When they had excited the police station Castle hesitantly offered breakfast at his house, obviously thinking that she would refuse him.

Beckett gave him a smile.

"You know what, Castle, I think I will. I could use something to get my mind off this bullshit case." Castle gave a delighted skip as he walked next to her.

"You won't regret it!" Castle exclaimed.

* * *

Beckett wasn't regretting it. She was happy that she had accepted the offer of breakfast, the pancakes that Castle was whipping up smelled like heaven.

Beckett sat at the counter on one of the stools, while Castle stood at the stove, his back to her, humming as he flipped the round pancakes into the air.

She watched him move about the kitchen for a little bit, and then focused her attention on the smooth counter that her hands were resting on. That was when her eyes caught sight of the bloody needle and thread still laying on the counter.

Beckett's eyes snapped to Castle, making sure that he wasn't looking at her and then she swiftly reached out and snagged the bloody needle.

Carefully, she placed it into her jacket pocket. Then Beckett folded her hands and placed them back on the counter.

She didn't know what it was yet, but something about the needle was making her edgy. Actually the whole thing with Castle the night before was making her jumpy.

When she was done with breakfast, she was going to head back to the office and run the blood. Resolved to get to the bottom of this, Beckett graced Castle with a smile as he placed her plate of pancakes in front of her with a flourish.

"There we go a stack of blueberry pancakes for you and a heap of chocolate chip pancakes for me." He walked around the counter and sat next to her, eagerly digging into his bunch of pancakes.

Beckett ate more slowly, debating with herself whether or not to ask Castle about his visitor from the night before. She glanced at the spot where the needle had been sitting. If she brought up the wounded man (she was sure that it was a man), then Castle would remember the needle and see that it was missing.

No, she decided. She would keep quiet until she ran the blood.

* * *

**A/N: So, I don't know how I feel about this chapter. I wanted there to be more action, but it didn't really turn out that way. So it's kinda boring.  
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**Also, I need to mention that this wasn't suppose to be a long story. I meant for it to be a one-shot, but I loved it too much to let it be.  
**

**Lastly, I want to thank everybody who alerted and favorited this! And especially to everyone who reviewed. You guys are too cool! Hopefully, I won't let you down with how this story goes.  
**

**Let me know what you thought and I am open to suggestions! ****  
**


	3. He's your brother

**[He's Your Brother]**

Beckett told herself she wasn't surprised when the blood from Castle's came back as a match to the blood found on the knife of her murder victim, but she knew that she would be lying to herself.

Beckett threw a glance at Castle who was sitting in his usual spot near her desk.

Castle either had no idea that his visitor had been involved with their murder vic or he had been lying to her from the very beginning. Beckett clenched her fists around the paper that had confirmed her suspicions, crumbling it into a ball.

She got out of her chair, grabbing Castle by the arm and pulled him to his feet. He was surprised, but hid it well.

"What's up, Beckett?" She didn't answer him, instead dragged him to the break room, where only one other officer was getting coffee. Beckett glared at the man and he hurriedly dumped more milk into his coffee and hightailed it out of the room.

Beckett spun to face Castle. She shoved the paper confirming the blood under his nose.

"Do you mind explaining to me what this is?" She snarled, letting her anger get the best of her.

Castle carefully extracted the paper and looked it over. His head shot up indignant. "You took the needle from my house?" Beckett crossed her arms, leaving him to figure it out.

He continued to give her a betrayed look, but soon bent his head back over the paper and read on. "Wait, wait! Hold up! The blood from my house matches the blood found on our vic? How's that…" Castle stopped and then groaned, putting both hands to his face.

Beckett felt a small prick of victory. So Castle did know something.

"Tell me right now, Castle. Don't you leave anything out." Castle looked back up at her and his eyes were pleading with her not to make him tell her.

She held his gaze. "Castle, you have to tell me. Whoever was at your house is dangerous and could harm you or Alexis." Castle let out a small snort and seemed resigned to telling her.

"Dangerous yes, but hurt Alexis or me, never." Beckett uncrossed her arms and sat down in one of the chairs. After a moment Castle sat next to her.

"The blood belongs to my…my brother. I haven't seen him in years, not since he was fifteen and ran away to join the circus or something like that. We don't really know where he went." Beckett had to restrain her mouth from dropping. She didn't know what surprised her more, the fact that Castle had a brother, or the fact that the brother joined the circus.

"Last night, Clint came to see me." Castle went on. "He was hurt. A knife cut across his ribs. He wanted me to patch him up, but he did a fine job all on his own without my help." Beckett didn't like where this story was going.

"He told me that he had really come to warn…you." Beckett frowned.

"Why would he want to warn me? I don't even know him. How the hell does he even know my name?" She demanded, not liking the fact that someone knew her and she had no idea who he was.

Castle shrugged. "I don't know. Clint was always good at finding secrets out. It's what got him into the most trouble." Beckett ignored Castle's little smile, probably remembering something that Clint had found out years ago.

"What was the warning?" Beckett asked, afraid to hear it, but needing to know.

Castle didn't answer right away and clenched his hands into fists, the paper crumbling in one of them. "He said that you need to stop looking into your mother's death."

The wind seemed to be knocked out of Beckett's lungs and she couldn't breathe. She sat back into her chair.

"Clint said that you don't know who you're dealing with and it's going to get ugly." Castle reached out and grasped her hand in his large one. "He also said not to worry, because he'll take care of it." Castle added earnestly.

Beckett sprang to her feet, wrenching her hand out of Castle's grasp.

"He'll take care of it?" She yelled. "Your brother, whom you haven't seen in years shows up and says that he's going to take care of the monster that killed my mom? Castle, you should have told me immediately! I need to find your brother and he's going to tell me everything he knows!"

Beckett paused, breathing heavily. The door opened behind her, but she ignored it.

"Right now, Castle. Call him and make him come here." Castle opened his mouth. "I don't care what it takes; we are going to find your bastard brother."

"That won't be necessary." A voice came from behind her. Beckett turned and was suddenly facing a pretty red-haired woman.

The woman smiled thinly and held out her hand for Beckett to shake. Beckett hesitantly reached forward and gripped the hand.

The woman had a surprisingly strong grip. "Agent Melisa Carter. I'm here to take over your murder investigation." Beckett's gaze narrowed. So this was the person they were sending to take over her case. This red-haired woman, who probably couldn't hurt a fly, was here to find a dangerous killer.

"Detective Beckett, please hand over any and all information that you've acquired in this investigation." Carter said, her voice leaving no room for argument. Beckett forced a smile onto her lips.

"Yeah, everything we've got is on the murder board by my desk." Castle covertly tightened his fist around the paper with his brother's blood on it.

Carter gave Beckett a large smile, but instead of turning and walking out of the break room, she strode forward and grasped Castle's large fist.

She squeezed it and Castle gasped, his fist automatically uncurling. Carter plucked the crumbled paper out of his hand and then marched out of the room.

* * *

Natasha had to laugh, quietly, at the look on Castle's face. He looked positively astounded that she had taken the paper from him without putting up any fight. Her smile faded, however, when she thought about Beckett. That woman wasn't going to leave this alone. It didn't matter what Natasha did to try and convince her, Beckett wouldn't rest until she had found Clint. Not that she would be able to find Clint easily or even at all, but she might stumble upon SHIELD and that wouldn't be good for any of them.

Natasha moved through the rows of desks in the precinct like she belonged there. She heard the break room door open and then slam shut. Natasha stopped at Beckett's desk, giving the murder board a once over.

Despite herself, she was a little impressed that they had acquired all the information that they had in so little time.

She began to take down the few pictures of the crime scene and the victim and put them on Beckett's desk, where she would then take the pictures away.

Then, she started to erase all the words that the team had written down around the pictures.

Beckett came to stand next to her, but Natasha ignored her focusing on her work. She could practically feel the anger rolling off Beckett and Natasha knew that her fears were confirmed. Beckett was not going to leave this alone.

"Castle, let's go take a walk." Beckett snapped and strode away from Natasha. Castle hurried to keep up with his partner and the two of them left on the elevator.

Natasha sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She'd have to call SHIELD and have someone tail those two before they did something stupid.

She pulled her cell phone out of the purse that she had set down on Castle's chair. Punching speed dial, Natasha listened to it ring once before it was answered.

"Coulson."

"Agent Coulson, this is Agent Carter." Tasha hadn't known that Coulson was handling the clean up, but her voice didn't betray her.

"I'm requesting a tail on," She paused and glanced around the office making sure that no one was listening to her conversation, especially Detectives Ryan and Esposito. They were busy at their desks, even though they glanced up at her every now and again.

"I need a tail on Detective Kate Beckett and Richard Castle." There was a small pause on the other side.

"We already have someone on the job." Coulson said in the particularly bland voice he used when he wasn't telling her the whole truth.

"Who is it?" She demanded. "Coulson?"

"I'll connect you to his earpiece and you can talk to him yourself." Was his only reply.

Natasha did not have a good feeling about this.

There was a clicking sound on the other side and then came the male voice, "This is Barton."

Natasha squeezed her eyes shut and really wanted to punch something, but she kept her voice calm. "Barton. What are you doing here?"

"Tasha. I should have known that they would send you to deal with my mess. I thought for sure Coulson would have sent Parker." He sounded almost delighted that she was here with him.

"Why aren't you on some job in the middle of no where?" She hissed into the phone. "As much as I want you to finally clean up your own mess, Fury didn't want you anywhere near this so what the hell are you doing here?"

Clint chuckled a little on the other side, "Coulson didn't tell me to leave and I didn't ask. I'm staying until this is over." His voice had turned serious, "Kate Beckett doesn't know what she's about to step into, I'm trying to make sure that she doesn't get hurt."

Natasha sighed again. Clint sounded so sincere and she knew that even if she did report him to Fury, he wouldn't go unless they used extreme force.

"Fine. Are you watching her and Castle then?" She asked sharply. Even though Natasha couldn't see Clint, she knew that he had flinched at the name of his brother.

"Yep, I got eyes on them." Came the reply.

"Good. Make sure they don't do something stupid." Natasha ordered and snapped the phone shut.

She leaned against the edge of the desk and let her eyes close. Why did she get the feeling that she was going to regret this?

* * *

Clint heard Nat shut the phone and he eased a hand up to click the tiny button on his earpiece. The wind whistled and it ruffled his short hair from where he sat on the tall building.

He shifted his position getting ready to move. Clint pressed his scope against his eye, focusing on the figure of Beckett and Castle. They had just left the police building and were on the move.

He got to his feet and then leaned down putting his folded bow into the military backpack that lay near his feet. He also tucked the scope that he had taken off one of his guns next to the bow. Clint zipped it up and slung the bag over his shoulder.

Clint gave Beckett and Castle, who were still standing right outside the police building, one last glance before turning to leave. He would follow them on foot for now.

It probably would have been better if had been watching them from the coffee shop across the police office, but Clint liked being up high above everyone else. It helped him to think more clearly.

Clint strode over where the door to the staircase was. He fingered the cold metal door and shoved it open. His booted feet didn't make a sound as he went down the stairs.

If he was being honest with himself, he was happy and a little nervous that he was so close to his family. Clint wished that he could have a beer and a normal conversation with Rick, that didn't include knife wounds and warnings. Though he dreaded the day where he would have to talk to his mother again, but Clint looked forward to meeting his niece some day. He realized he didn't even know her name.

At the bottom of the stairs he exited the building and joined the crowds that flowed on the sidewalks.

Castle and Beckett hadn't gotten too far in front of him and he could still see the backs of their heads.

Maybe they weren't going somewhere that concerned the body that he had left in the alley the other night, but with his luck they probably were would end up shot or something of the sort.

* * *

**A/N: I'm really sorry that this took me so long to finish. I had finals last week and a bunch of other stuff, but the good news is ****I've graduated high school and it's ****now summer! ****  
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**A big thank you to all my reviewers and everyone who has alerted my story. Also I really want to thank cocoa85715 who has kindly offered to be my beta.  
**

**Lastly, I decided that I want to change the title of the story to "Nighthawks," which is a famous American painting from 1942 and was painted by Edward Hopper. Google a picture of it. It's really cool.  
**


	4. Who are you?

**[Who are you?]**

"The last time you knew your brother was still alive was almost ten years ago?" Beckett couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice. Castle had such a great relationship with his mother and Alexis, making it clear that family was one of the most important things to him. It was hard to imagine that Castle would not try to go out and find his little brother.

Castle looked ashamed at her words and looked anywhere but her face. He fingered the Styrofoam cup, full of coffee and glanced around the small, but busy coffee shop that they had entered.

He shot a quick look at Beckett, who was just waiting for him to say something. Castle sighed, knowing that Beckett was willing to wait all night if she had to.

* * *

_Castle looked up from his typewriter when the front door slammed, and then came the yelling voices of his mother and younger sibling. _

_"Clint, come back here! I'm talking to you." There was a muffled reply which Castle didn't quite catch, but sure that it was just another one of Clint's smartass retorts. He frowned at the doorway that led to the kitchen. He could see the shadowy figures of his mother and brother. _

_"I got a call from your school today." Castle winced. "They said you started another fight." Castle had seen the whole thing go down and though it wasn't remotely amusing or cool now, he had been proud of his brother holding his own against four juniors._

_There was an angry sigh of Martha. "Why did you beat these boys up?" Castle saw the small figure of Clint shrug. _

_"Cause I could." The grim laughter was evident in his reply. Castle winced again. Not the right thing to say to their mother. _

_"Get out." She said quietly. Silence from the kitchen. _

_"What?" _

_"You heard me. I want you to get out of this house." There was a slam and then more silence from the kitchen. _

_Castle got up from his desk and edged over to the door frame. _

_"Mom…" He said softly. "Mother?" _

_Martha looked up from where she was sitting at the kitchen table. Her face was stern and her mouth was set in an angry line. _

_"Where's Clint?" Castle asked and then winced, knowing that he should have kept his mouth shut about Clint for the moment. _

_"Your brother is in his room." She snapped, but then softened at Castle's hurt look. "Come here." She said, reaching her arms out._

_Castle came to her and was then crushed in her embrace. _

_"You've always been my good boy." Martha murmured into his dark hair. _

_Castle didn't say anything. He had always tried his best not to make his mother upset with him, especially when she was angry with Clint every other day. _

_He broke out of the hug, giving his mom an encouraging smile before heading to the room that he and Clint shared. _

_Castle hesitantly knocked on the door. There was no answer from inside, so he eased the door open slowly. He stuck his head in and ducked quickly as a large object came flying at his head. _

_"Dammit, Clint!" He snapped, pushing the door open the rest of the way and stepping inside. "What the hell?" _

_Clint glared at him from where he stood next to the closet. "Go away…Momma's boy." _

_Castle matched his glare. "At least I'm not the one that makes her so mad that she demands you to leave the house." He stopped, noticing the duffel in Clint's hand for the first time. _

_"What's that?" He asked. "What do you think you're doing?" He exclaimed as Clint put more clothes into the bag. _

_"Leaving." Clint said shortly. _

_Castle marched forward, snatching the bag out of Clint's hand, "No, you're not!" _

_Clint shoved Castle, ripping his green duffel out of Castle's grip. "Yes, I am. She…" He stopped, his voice choking a little. "She told me to leave, so that's what I'm doing." _

_Castle sighed with exasperation. He wanted to reach forward and shake some sense into Clint. Both Clint and his mother were too stubborn and blind to see how much they were hurting each other. _

_All Clint wanted was a little attention from their mother and all Martha wanted was for Clint to love and respect her. _

_"You idiot." He hissed at Clint, "She doesn't want you to stay gone. She just needs time to cool off. Stop being so melodramatic." _

_That seemed to make Clint even more upset. This time at Castle. _

_"What would you know? You're the perfect child. The one that never causes problems." Clint took steps closer to Castle at each sentence. He stabbed an accusing finger at Castle. _

_"I'm sick of this family. We never stay in one place. Mom's always telling us that she'd make it big soon with her acting, but you wait. It won't happen. She's constantly telling us to follow our dreams…but apparently only you can actually do what you like. She encourages you to write. Me, I want to shoot guns and bows and arrows. What does she tell me? It's not worth a damn thing! All I'm going to become with those skills is some mindless grunt in the military. I'm sick of it!" Clint practically shouted the last words. The brothers stood only a few feet apart. _

_Castle could see Clint trembling with rage and hurt. _

_"Clint…I'm sorry…" For once in his span of seventeen years Castle didn't know what to say. "You know that she doesn't mean it. She wants the best for you." Clint growled in disgust, throwing his hands into the air. _

_"Shut up, Rick. Just shut up." Clint turned back to the closet, grabbing out his dark hoodie and pulling it over his head. _

_Reaching down to the ground, Clint snatched up his duffel and slung it over his shoulder. _

_Castle's eyes widened and he was quick to stand in front of the window. Clint pulled his hood low over his face and stopped inches from Castle. _

_"Get out of my way." His voice was low and for the first time Castle knew what it was like to be on the end of his brother's terrifying anger. _

_"No." Castle said, knowing as soon as the words were out of his mouth that he was going to be in pain. _

_Clint's fist was quick and sharp. Castle doubled over, clutching at his gut and gasping for breath. _

_When had Clint become so fast? _

_By the time he was able to straighten, the window was swinging and Clint was gone._

* * *

"I didn't go after him." Castle said, softly. "That was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. He needed his older brother and I wasn't there for him." Beckett grimaced sympathetically, reaching her hand out to squeeze Castle's.

"You said that he joined the circus. How did you know?" She questioned after a moment.

Castle took a sip from his coffee before answering. "I saw him once. Mother took me to the circus two years later. It wasn't for my benefit. She had a new boyfriend at the time."

From his corner of the coffee shop, Clint grimaced. He remembered that night. It was the night that everything changed.

* * *

_Clint breathed in deeply, pulling his bowstring back. He ignored the flashing lights and the shouts of the audience around him, focusing only on the target in front of him. _

_He released the string, his arrow flying from the bow. It landed squarely in the middle of the target. _

_Clint allowed himself a quick smile before he released, in quick succession, one arrow after another, until his quiver was empty. _

_All of the arrows were clustered tightly together in the middle of the target. _

_Turning to the audience he held his bow above his head and gave a deep bow. Coming up from his bow, Clint was grinning widely looking at the bright faces of the audience, until his eyes landed on the all too familiar face of his brother. _

_His smile slid off his face as he looked besides Rick to see if their mother was there. She wasn't there, thankfully. He saw Rick's face change and he knew that Rick recognized him. _

_Clint turned sharply on his heel, almost running out of the arena. He ran till he was at his trailer. Leaning against the wall, he caught his breath and tried to calm his nerves. _

_What was Rick even doing in New York? Had they moved? _

_There was the sound of crunching gravel behind him and Clint snapped around, whipping out the Glock that he carried under his show jacket. _

"_Whoa! Whoa! Easy there." Clint frowned. He hadn't been expecting this lady. He thought that Rick had showed up to drag him back home. That's why he had chosen to pull the gun, to show how serious he was about staying. _

"_Who are you?" He demanded. "You're not supposed to be back here." He lowered his gun, putting it back into its holster. _

_The woman walked forward, ignoring what he had just said. She held out her hand. _

"_Joanna Beckett. Nice to meet you."_

* * *

Clint swallowed. Blinking away the image of the woman he once knew, his eyes fell on her daughter. Kate Beckett was staring anxiously at his brother, her eyes, so much like her mother's, were soft.

Clint jerked as his earpiece buzzed. Covertly, he got up from his table and backed up into the hall that led to the restrooms.

He pushed on his earpiece, "Barton, here."

"Barton. We need you to get to Central Park." Coulson's voice came from the speaker.

Clint frowned, his eyes still on the shapes of Beckett and Castle.

"I thought my orders were to watch Beckett and Castle."

"They've changed." Coulson sounded a little strained.

"What's going on?" Clint demanded.

"We've heard from some of our friends in the underground, that someone's making a move on Alexis Castle."

"Shit." Clint muttered, already making his way through the hordes of people to the exit. "Do we know who it is?"

"No." Came the short reply. "Our man didn't want to go into details. He was scared."

Clint was out the door, not even looking twice at his brother and Beckett. He was out on the street and heading to the park.

"And, Clint. Hurry." Coulson said before disconnecting. Clint swore and quickened his pace to a jog. Coulson never used his first name.

"Shit, shit." Clint muttered as he pushed his way through the masses of people that covered the streets of New York.

Alexis shouldn't have been part of this. Did the thugs know something he didn't?

Checking the street names, Clint knew that he was nearing the park that Coulson had told him Alexis was at.

Thank God it wasn't far from the café; that was probably why Coulson sent him and not Natasha.

He ran through the park's entrance, frantically searching for the red-haired niece that he had never met. This wasn't exactly how he had envisioned meeting her for the first time, but it would have to do.

Clint swore again. The park was huge. Alexis could be anywhere in it. How the hell was he supposed to find one girl in it all?

With his stomach sinking, he set off running down the gravel path. His eyes flickered over each person that he passed, until he saw her. Clint skidded to a halt, hardly believing his luck.

Alexis had just gotten up from a park bench, slinging a massager bag over her shoulder. Her eyes were focused on the phone that she held in her hand and a smile played over her lips.

After his moment of frozen surprise, Clint took off running to her. From the corner of his eye he saw three men that seemed to have the same idea, only they were closer to Alexis than he was. They would make it to her side before he did.

"F*ck." He hissed, forcing his legs to go faster.

They reached her first. One of them grabbed her arm. Alexis looked surprised and then began to struggle in his grasp, but the man was much larger than she was and kept his grip.

"Hey!" Clint called, causing the three men and Alexis to look his way. Alexis's mouth opened and she gasped at him to help her.

"Stay out of this." One man said. Alexis used their distraction to wrench her arm out of the man's grasp as Clint crashed into the same man.

Alexis stumbled back and stood there, panting and staring at Clint.

"Run!" Clint snapped and didn't wait to see if she did as he commanded.

He turned his attention to the three men.

* * *

Castle and Beckett exited the coffee shop and began their walk back to the office, when Castle's phone went off.

Pulling it out, Castle smiled, "Hey, Alexis. I'm heading back to─," Castle's face went pale and he froze mid-step.

"Where?" The tone of his voice made Beckett stop and turn concern etched across her face.

Castle listened and took off running, Beckett close on his heels.

* * *

The first one was easy to take down, one quick jab to his throat and he lay writhing on the gravel.

The next two were a bit trickier now that Clint had lost the element of surprise. One of the remaining two decided to take off after Alexis, while the other brutally began to pummel Clint with his fists.

Clint lifted his arms, protecting his face as best he could, while he took a second to assess the situation.

Alexis saw the man running at her and she gave a cry, trying to run away.

Clint knew he wouldn't be able stop the man from reaching Alexis while the other thug beat Clint with his fists.

Clint threw a quick jab into thug's face and reached into his green jacket bringing out a knife while his enemy was distracted.

His hand blurred and the knife was suddenly buried in the back of the knee of the man who was chasing after Alexis. He gave a scream before his leg gave out and he crashed to the ground.

The other man recovered from Clint's blow and reached forward, grabbing the considerably smaller man by the back of his neck. He doubled Clint over, jabbing his curled fist into Clint's defenseless and exposed kidneys.

Clint grunted with each impact of the fist, his head buried under the thug's arm.

Clint reached both his hands up, grabbing hold of the man's arm that was punching his body. Clint sprang up, shooting his legs out from under him so that his entire weight was on the man's arm.

The man staggered under Clint's sudden weight. Clint then wrapped his legs around the thug's long legs.

The man's grip around Clint's neck loosened in surprise, allowing Clint to break free.

Clint wrenched his entire body backward, causing the man to tumble forward, following Clint to the gravel.

They landed in a heap on the ground, the man smothering Clint under his weight.

Clint bucked, wiggling out from underneath the man. He sprang to his feet, throwing a hard kick at the man's face before he grabbed the man's arm pulling it back.

The man howled as Clint popped his arm out of its socket. Next Clint rolled him over, so that he was on his back. He slammed his foot down on the man's exposed face.

He felt bone snap under his boot and knew that the man was out of the fight.

Clint dropped the man's arm and straightened. He gave the first man that he had punched another kick to the head, before he ran to where the last man had fallen from Clint's knife.

Clint skidded to a halt in front of the groaning man. He dropped to his knees, grabbing the man's jacket.

"Who sent you?" He hissed into the man's face. The man's eyes hardened and he clamped his mouth shut.

"Tell me." No answer. "Okay." Clint said. He gripped the man's injured knee with one hand and with his remaining hand he reached forward and ripped out his knife. The man whimpered, tears trailing down the sides of his face.

"Feel like talking?" Still nothing. Clint tightened his hold around the knee, blood squeezing through his fingers. The man's lips were white, but his eyes taunted Clint.

Clint swore and released the man's knee. He got to his feet, blood dripping from his hand. The man was a pro and Clint didn't have the time to get a name out of him.

He continued to glare at the man, who lay at his feet until a thought occurred to him and a smile began to curl around his lips.

_He_ didn't have the time; however Natasha did have the time.

There was a scuffle of a shoe against the gravel behind him. Clint whirled around, the bloody knife in his hand.

"Stop!" The person cried her hands above her face. Clint slowly lowered the knife. "Sorry." He said as she too dropped her hands.

Alexis stared at Clint, fear still in her eyes.

Clint took a step forward, but Alexis quickly backed up, her hands coming back up.

"Stay away!" She said, her eyes going to his bloody hand and knife. Clint froze. "Sorry." He said again. "I'm not gonna hurt you." Alexis glanced down at the man, who lay in a puddle of his own blood at Clint's feet.

"What did you do?" She asked her voice strained. Clint was impressed that she wasn't freaking out like most girls her age would be doing right about now.

"I'm just trying to protect you." He said simply.

"Really?" Alexis said, surprise tingeing her voice. "Why were they after me? Does it have something to do with Dad's case?"

Clint wasn't sure how to answer; in fact, he probably shouldn't even be talking to her. Clint tried to make himself move past her, but he couldn't help but stay where he was. This was the niece that he had never met, had never known.

Alexis still waited for an answer and though, she was much calmer than before, she still kept her distance from him.

"I can't really say…" He said carefully. He needed to go.

Alexis's eyes went over his shoulder and Clint stiffened, thinking that maybe he missed something.

He spun around as Alexis cried, "Dad!" Clint saw the two figures running towards them. They passed the two thugs that Clint had already taken care of; Beckett giving them a glance, but Castle's eyes were on his daughter. Clint ducked his head, hoping that they didn't get a good look at him. He was in enough trouble as it was.

"Gotta go." He muttered to Alexis and brushed past her. She turned after him.

"Wait! Come back. Who are you?" She called after him, but not making a move to go after him.

Clint ignored her questions, but against his better judgment threw one last glance over his shoulder.

Beckett and Castle now stood next to Alexis. Castle had Alexis buried in a hug, but Beckett was staring after Clint, her eyes wide with surprise.

Clint's blue eyes locked with hers for a second. He gave her a cocky grin before turning his back to them.

Behind him, Beckett yelled, "Wait! Come back here, dammit!"

Clint waved a hand behind him, before disappearing into the trees that surrounded the pathway.

* * *

**A/N: First off, I'm really, really sorry that this took me so long to get done and post. I was gone for three weeks and then I got too lazy.  
****But here is what I've got. I hope that it was worth the wait. :D **

**I want to thank all of the new readers and reviewers! It makes my day whenever I see that I have a new minion. **

**I also need to thank: Cylon One, cocoa85715, and Andrigno for being my betas and helpers with this chapter. You guys are the best! ^_^ **

**Lastly, this story takes place before the Avengers movie and I will probably not have any of the other Avengers in here, except maybe Tony Stark. We'll see. **


	5. Where my Demons Hide

**[Where my Demons Hide]**

_Clint ignored her outstretched hand, taking a step back. His hand strayed back to his gun, which he had put back into his jacket. Clint relaxed a little bit as his fingers brushed over the grip of his Glock. _

"_I'm investigating your boss." The lady, Beckett, said. Clint frowned and his hold tightened on his gun. _

_Beckett took another step forward, her hand going into her jacket. _

"_Don't!" Clint barked, whipping his gun out again. Beckett froze her eyes on the gun pointed between her eyes. "Stay back." Clint said the gun in his hand steady. He was prepared to shoot her if he needed to. _

"_I don't want to hurt you." The woman said. Clint was impressed that her voice didn't betray the fear shining in her eyes. She slowly pulled her hand from her jacket. All that she held was a small white business card. _

"_I need your help." She said, holding the card out. Clint ignored it. _

"_My help? Why would you need my help?" Beckett lowered her hand to her side, the white card still clutched in it. _

"_As I'm sure you know from the gun you're holding, that's there more going on here. This isn't just a circus." _

"_Like hell it's not." Clint retorted. "What more do you want from a circus? We got bearded women, dwarfs, and, oh yeah, me." The muscles in his arm tighten. How much did she know? _

"_I know more about this place than you probably do." She said calmly. "I know that you've been part of this circus for two years. They call you their Little Hawk because you can't seem to keep your feet on the ground. They use your talent to put on a good show, but that's not all they use you and your bow for." _

"_So you looked up my act in the pamphlet." Clint snorted. "That doesn't mean you know shit about my home." _

"_I know that your circus is more than it appears." She continued locking her eyes on his. "I also know that Marvelous Michael isn't your true boss."_

* * *

"Tell me everything that he said to you." Beckett said, trying to keep the impatience from her voice. Alexis nodded and cleared her throat.

"He didn't really say that much." She said, leaning into her father's embrace on the couch inside their living room. Beckett paced around the coffee table, her arms crossed over her chest.

"When the other men were grabbing me, he came crashing in and told me to run." Alexis started. "So I ran, but one of the guys started chasing after me. I guess that he saw the thug," Alexis said, slowly.

Castle tightened his arm around his daughter, the fear rising up again at the thought that his daughter had almost been hurt.

Alexis continued, "Because he threw a knife at the guy, hitting him somewhere in the leg. After he had taken care of all the men," Alexis's tone of voice betrayed how impressed she was with that fact. "He went to the man that had started chasing after me. He wanted the man to tell who had sent him, but the man wasn't talking, so…" Alexis faltered for a beat. "So he squeezed the man's wounded leg, but the man still wasn't talking. That's when I came up to him. He told me that he didn't want to hurt me and that he had been sent to protect me." She looked up at her father with wonder in her eyes.

"Why would someone be sent to protect me?" She asked. Castle grimaced hearing the hero worship in her voice.

"I don't know, Alexis, just keep talking. Beckett and I need to know what else happened before we got there."

"Well, then I asked him something, I don't remember what, and he told me that he couldn't say much. Then he took off once you and Beckett showed up."

Beckett stopped her pacing and faced Alexis and Castle.

"He didn't say anything else? Like where he was going?" Alexis shook her head.

"No. Who is he? Why are you after him, Beckett? He's not a criminal, is he?"

Beckett frowned. "I don't know." She said. "I need to talk to him about a body that I found. He's a suspect in the case."

Alexis's brow furrowed. "You think he murdered someone? Why would he kill someone and then protect me?"

Beckett shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. That's why I need to talk to him." She frowned angrily and said almost to herself, "I can't even talk to those men that chased after you, Alexis, that Carter bitch already took them off my hands."

Alexis glanced away from the angry Beckett and looked up at her dad. "Do you know who he is, Dad?" She asked.

Castle's eyes widen a little bit; it always surprised him when his daughter picked up on the smallest details.

"What makes you think that I know him?" Castle asked instead.

"He didn't seem very anxious until you and Beckett showed up. I dunno." Alexis said shrugging. "I figured that with all your connections maybe you knew him."

"Knew who, dear?" A voice said from the stairs of Castle's house. Castle, Beckett, and Alexis all turned around to where the voice had come from. Castle winced as his mother finished coming down the last few steps of the stairs and walked into the living room to join the others.

"Who do you know, Richard?" Martha asked again. "Hello, Beckett." She said almost in the same sentence.

Beckett gave Martha a little wave and threw a quick look at Castle.

"You know what?" Beckett said, moving away from the family. "I think I'm going to get going."

Castle got to his feet quickly, his eyes widening in panic. "You don't have to go." He said hurriedly. He chased after Beckett as she made her way to the door.

"Please, don't go yet." Castle whispered to his friend.

"You've got to tell them sometime, Castle." Beckett replied lowly. "I'm not part of your family so I shouldn't be here. Besides, I think I got everything that I could from Alexis. Now I've got to go catch your damned brother." Beckett threw Castle a wink and opened the door.

Castle spent a couple of seconds staring at the closed door before turning back to his mother and Alexis, who were both waiting for him expectantly.

* * *

"So you really don't want to talk to me, do you?" Natasha said, leaning forward. The man sitting on the wooden chair in front of her didn't flinch. Natasha was mildly impressed with the man that Clint had taken down with a knife earlier that day. He really was a professional, just like Clint had said.

Natasha took a few steps away from the man, turning her back to him. She smirked as she thought back to when she had taken all three prisoners out of Beckett's hands, throwing her rank in Beckett's face. Tasha wasn't sure if Beckett was going to try to bust her face in or just die of indignation. It had been an amusing sight.

"Okay," Natasha said turning back to the man, "I see that you're not going to talk to me." She smiled thinly. "That's okay. I still have your two friends to talk to and as I understand it, they didn't fare as well as you did against _my_ friend."

The man's face barely flickered, though Natasha could see some concern shine in the man's eyes. Obviously, he didn't think his pals would be able to keep their mouths shut.

* * *

_Clint glared at Beckett. "What do you even know about Mike?" He spat. "The man's a drunk and more than a little crazy, but he took me in and gave me a home. If he isn't my boss, then who is?" Clint demanded. _

_Joanna Beckett took another step toward the young man. He gritted his teeth, but his gun didn't waver. _

_Clint was surprised by the look that was in her eyes. She wasn't as scared as she had been earlier, that much was obvious when she didn't stop walking towards him. _

_Without meaning to, Clint retreated until his back was shoved up against his trailer. _

_Beckett stopped when her forehead was pressed against the muzzle of Clint's pistol. _

"_If you're going to shoot me, do it already." She said. "I think that you want to know why I'm investigating your boss or else you would have shot me already." _

"_Don't tempt me." Clint retorted, but knew that she was right. He did want to know what she was trying to pin on his boss this time. His real boss, that is. _

* * *

"Hey," Natasha said, sitting down opposite the man with the broken nose. "Sorry about your nose. I hope that it doesn't hurt too badly."

The man winced in reply. Hell, yes it hurt.

"Yeah," Natasha laughed, "my friend, the one that gave you that swollen nose is a bit of an asshole. I mean, c'mon, you saw how short he is. He's got something to prove."

The man grinned faintly, before he grimaced again when pain shot through his nose.

"So, look, Mr.…?" She trailed off, leaving him an opening to give her his name.

"Andy." He supplied for her easily. She smiled at him.

"Andy. I really need to know who sent you to kill that little girl. It's very important to me and my job." Andy's face fell.

"I can't tell you that." He said with some remorse. "I can answer almost anything else, but I really can't tell you who my boss it."

* * *

"_Clint, you seem like a good kid. You're just way over your head here." Joanna Beckett continued. "Do you know who exactly gives you the orders? Do you know who it is that gives you the targets and the packages to deliver?" _

_Clint glared, but didn't say anything. _

* * *

"Oh," Natasha said, feigning disappointment. "That's really too bad." She got up from her chair. "If you could just give me what I need, I could get you out of here and in protection…but as it is."

Natasha opened the door, getting ready to leave the room. She threw a glance over her shoulder at Andy. "I'm sorry about this, but my friend, the one that busted your nose, is going to talk to you now. I am sorry." Tasha said.

Andy's eyes widen at the thought of facing Barton again.

Natasha stuck her head out of the door and called, "Barton, your turn." She turned back to Andy, "The thing is, Andy, Barton really isn't the one you should be afraid of…" She crossed the short distance to where Andy sat rigid in his chair. Leaning forward so that her face was inches from his, she whispered, "I'm the one you should be scared of."

* * *

"_Yes, I know." Clint said, and then clamped his mouth shut, angry that she had convinced him into saying something. _

"_Good." She said. "Look, like I said, you seem like a good kid you don't deserve to go to jail." _

"_What are you saying?" He demanded. _

"_I'm offering you a job." Beckett said. "I need your help, Clint. Together we can stop him."_

"_Why would I want to stop him?" Clint snapped, "He's my boss. He pays me and gives me a place to live." _

"_I can offer you more." Beckett said. "The people I'm working for can pull strings and get you into whatever school you want. We can get you a real home; one that doesn't move around. And most importantly, Clint, we will never ask you to kill anyone ever again." _

* * *

Andy's face paled. "What the f*ck?" He asked, his voice wavering. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Natasha smiled. "You're fairly well versed in the underground mobs and whatnot, yes?"

Andy nodded, his eyes wide.

"Good. I don't think I told you my name at the beginning of this interview, did I?"

Andy shook his head, his fear really beginning to rise now.

"Natasha Romanoff. Also known as the Black Widow."

* * *

_Clint's jaw tightened. How the hell did she know all this?_

"_How about this," Clint said, "I kill you now and go back to my life." _

"_I don't think you're going to do that." Beckett said, "You're not a killer. Not really. You don't want to do this anymore." _

"_Says who?" Clint demanded. "How do you know I don't like it? Maybe I enjoy it, maybe after I kill them I dance in their blood." _

"_Fine." Beckett snapped. "I'm done talking to you. Either kill me now or let me go and be killed by your boss when he finds out that you let me go." _

_Clint's eye twitched. _

"_Just make it quick, Clint. I've got to help my daughter get ready for her prom." _

* * *

Andy froze in his chair. He had heard of her. Who hasn't? Though, the rumors were that she had died a couple of years ago. Yet, here she was alive and well.

He had also heard rumors of how she got her information out of her prisoners. From what he had heard, she had only gotten started with him. In fact, she hadn't even started with him. First was the cajoling, and then came the pain; lots and lots of pain.

* * *

_Clint blinked. He had never really thought about his targets having lives. They were always just a face on a page that needed to be disposed of. The woman who stood in front of him had a life, was a mother and a wife. Who was he to just take that away from her?_

_For the first time that night, his gun wavered. _

"_Dammit." He swore, dropping his arm down to his side. "Get outta here!" He said. "Go now before I change my mind or someone else sees you. Trust me when I say they won't be as understanding as me." _

_Beckett smiled softly. "Here." She said, shoving her card into his hand. "Call me tomorrow night." She turned to leave, hoisting her purse higher on her shoulder._

"_What the hell, lady," Clint called after her, "I didn't say I would help you." _

_Beckett stopped and turned to face the young man again. _

"_Yes, you will." _

* * *

"I'll tell you!" Andy shouted in his eagerness to tell her, "I'll tell you! Just don't hurt me." Natasha grinned and leaned away from Andy. "Wonderful."

"A name please."

* * *

"_You are going to help me, Clint, and together we take Lonnie Lincoln down." Clint snorted. _

"_It's gonna take more than just you and I to take Tombstone down." _

"_I've got more help than just you." Beckett smiled. "Don't worry about that." _

* * *

"Lonnie Lincoln." Andy stuttered out. Natasha frowned, her delicate eyebrows pulling together.

Andy gulped and then whispered out, "Tombstone."

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys (this a long rambling mess, so feel free to skip my note). I'm really, really, sorry that this took me as long as it did to get out. Things just got so busy. I started my first year of college early (Aug. 17) and then things just got crazy.  
****But I've got a schedule planned out now. I'm going to force myself to hurry up and get more chapters out faster.  
****I hope that this chapter doesn't disappoint anyone and was worth the LONG wait.  
****  
**

**I want to thank everyone for the follows and favorites. And especially to those who review! To all my anonymous reviewers that I couldn't thank individually: YOU GUYS ROCK!  
**

**I also need to thank Brad W. for suggesting Tombstone as the big bad guy. As many of you probably guessed the bad fellow for this story was suppose to be the Kingpin, but I changed my mind last minute thanks to Brad's suggestion.  
Also many thanks to my amazing betas: cocoa85715, Cylon One, and The Psychic Philosopher (who happens to be my sister :D ).**

**One a side note, the title for this chapter is a line from the song "Demons" by Imagine Dragons. Check it out. **


	6. Hawk Boy

**[Hawk Boy]**

"Mother. Alexis." Castle said, standing awkwardly in front of his mother and daughter, who were both sitting on the couch. "I have something important to tell you and I want you both to promise not to throttle me when I do."

"Oh for heaven's sake, Richard," Martha said, "We're not going to kill you."

Alexis nodded, a grin playing on her mouth. "Yeah, dad. C'mon and tell us already."

Castle cleared his throat. "I recently became aware that…" He froze a moment and took a shuddering breath. "That Clint Castle isn't as dead or gone as we thought he was."

Castle squeezed his eyes shut in the silence, waiting for the levee to break. He wasn't disappointed.

"Who?"

"What!"

"Dad, who's that?"

"You saw him, Richard? Did you talk to him?"

"Dad, who is he?"

"Richard, answer me!"

Castle held up his hands, shushing anymore outcries. Martha was sitting on the edge of the couch, her green eyes wide with hurt and some anger.

"Tell me what has happened to my son." She said in the silence, her voice was low.

Alexis whirled around in her seat to throw a glance at Martha.

"Son?" She squeaked. She spun to face Castle again. "Your brother? My uncle?"

Castle nodded miserably. "Yes, Clint. His name is Clint, Alexis." Castle turned back to his mother and crouched down so that he was level with her eyes.  
"I didn't tell you because I didn't know how you would react. I didn't want to tell you when Clint probably wouldn't come back. I thought he was just passing through, running away again."

Martha didn't say a word. Her lips were pressed together in a thin line and tears glistened in her eyes.

"Turns out I was wrong." Castle continued. "I saw him again. And he's in more trouble than I can begin to tell you, starting with the little fact that he's Beckett's main suspect in her murder investigation and ending with him telling me that he's going to take care of whoever killed Beckett's mother."

Martha's lips began to wobble and in one sudden motion she buried her face into Castle's chest.

"Clint." She said her voice cracking. "My little boy; he's come home."

* * *

"Clint?" Fingers snapped in front of his nose. Clint's head jerked and he looked at Natasha. She raised her eyebrows.

"You okay there, Hawk boy?" Clint grinned a little.

"Yeah, I'm good. And really, Nat? Boy? I'm a man." Natasha gave him a rare laugh and shook her head.

"C'mon, we've got to focus. I've never heard of this Tombstone guy and that's unusual because I've at least _heard_of all the scum that fill the underground."

Clint shook his head. "You wouldn't have heard of this guy. Trust me. He likes to play things close to the chest. He doesn't like more than a few people actually knowing who he is. You have to think that once you know who Tombstone is, your days are numbered."

Natasha leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "I take it you know this guy personally."

Clint gave her a small nod and glanced down at his hands, seeing the blood that stained them.

"Do you want to tell me?" Natasha asked softly. She knew the pain that filled his past.

Clint looked up and sighed. He couldn't keep this hidden. It was about time he told his partner and friend about what happened to him before he joined SHIELD.

* * *

_Tombstone had his eye on Clint from almost the moment Clint had unwittingly joined the mob ring.  
_  
_Tombstone saw the anger and hurt that Clint had boiling inside of him. He took that pain and anger and molded it to his own use.  
_  
_Tombstone knew that Clint was a powerful ally because not only would the targets never suspect the young man being the one sent to end their lives, Clint was also excellent with his bow and most guns.  
_  
_Tombstone had wanted to meet Clint personally after the young man had successfully taken out several targets in the course of several months.  
_  
_Mike had informed Clint that this was a huge honor. No one who had been part of the mob only seven months met the boss. It was unheard of.  
_  
_Clint had been nervous and worried, sure that his neck was about to be broken.  
_  
_But the man who stood before him didn't look like he wanted to kill Clint. The man smiled and Clint suppressed a shudder as he caught sight of Tombstone's pointed teeth.  
_  
_"I've heard nothing but good things about you, Clint." Tombstone said, striding forward with his hand outstretched. Clint hesitantly grasped it and gave it a firm shake.  
_  
_"It's my pleasure, sir." Clint said respectfully.  
_  
_"You've barely been here for a year, yet when I ask my men who I should send to take care of some annoying problems, they all give me your name." Tombstone grinned. "I like to hear how well you've been doing. You have a good future ahead of you here, Clint."_

* * *

Clint blinked away the memory. He looked back up at Natasha.

"I was young and stupid; angry at the world. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I didn't care. I figured that the men I was sent to dispose of deserved the pain." Clint paused. "It wasn't to say that I didn't feel the impact of what I was doing. After I killed my first man, I threw up my lunch. But after a while, I grew numb to the fact that I was taking lives away from these men and sometimes women."

Natasha didn't say anything; she merely reached out and gripped his arm. She knew better than most the pain that came with the killing.

* * *

_ This was such a bad idea. Any moron knew that you couldn't just didn't flip on the biggest crime lord in all of New York City and not expect to get your head blown up within days.  
_  
_Clint crumbled the burger wrapper in one hand and then lobbed it into the trash can a few feet away.  
_  
_He struggled to keep his nervousness down. That woman, Beckett, had told him to call her. If he did that he was signing his own death warrant. He knew that Tombstone would find out eventually and when he did Clint was dead.  
_  
_Clint swallowed and made himself walk to the payphone that was near the circus area. He stood near it and glanced around, making sure he was alone. _  
_Clint pushed in the quarters and punched in the numbers.  
_  
_He cradled the phone in his hand and pressed it to his ear, listening to it ring. Clint nervously fingered the calling card that Beckett had given him, in his free hand. Was this really the right choice? Tombstone had never done anything wrong to him. He had been given a home and a place among friends. So what that he had to kill a few people to keep his place here.  
_  
_Clint frowned suddenly, and set his mouth into a determined line. Tombstone may have given him all that, but what gave him the right to decide who lived and who died?  
_  
_"Hello?" The voice suddenly came through the phone.  
_  
_"Uh, hi." Clint said hurriedly, "Uh, Joanna?"  
_  
_There was a quick and easy laugh on the other end.  
_  
_"No, this is Kate." Clint swallowed. Was this the daughter that Joanna had spoken of?  
_  
_"How was prom?" He blurted out. Clint winced and pounded a hand against his forehead.  
_  
_"It was great. How did you know I had my prom last night? Do you go to my school?" She sounded more curious than suspicious.  
_  
_"Uh, no. I talked to your mom last night. She told me about it."  
_  
_"So, you're the one that made my mom so late."  
_  
_"Sorry."  
_  
_"It's okay."  
_  
_"Can I, uh, talk to your mom, please?" Clint asked, wanting to end this odd and dangerous conversation.  
_  
_"Yeah. Hang on." There was a scuffle of noise than a loud call of, "Mom! Phone!"  
_  
_There was more noise on the other end of the phone and then came, "Hello? This is Joanna."  
_  
_"Beckett?" Clint said his voice harder than he meant it to be.  
_  
_"Clint?" Joanna said, she ignored the coldness in his voice and sounded pleased. "Hang on." More noise, and then the sound of a door shutting.  
_  
_"Alright," She said. "Thank you for calling me. I wasn't sure if you were going to. I know that it's dangerous for you to be talking to me."  
_  
_Clint didn't say anything; he didn't need to say a word. They both knew the risks._

* * *

Clint stopped again. Natasha merely waited for him to continue, her hands clasped in front of her. Clint looked up to meet Tasha's eyes and instead of the pain that she thought she would see, Natasha saw an idea lighting up his eyes.

"What?" She asked slowly, sure that she wasn't going to like what came next.

"You're not going to like it." Clint said, grinning. Natasha groaned in response.

* * *

"How'd it go with your mom and Alexis, Castle?" Beckett asked. Castle shrugged as he kept pace with Beckett.

"Well enough, I suppose." He said, "Mother took it better than I thought she was going to and for Clint's sake he'd better go see her before she hunts him down."

They walked in silence for a little bit longer before Castle asked, "How goes the search for Clint, anyway?" He took a sip of his coffee.

"Not well." Beckett answered grumpily. "He's like a ghost. I found a few minor offenses back when he was young and still living with you."

She paused as they wove their way through the crowd of people that lined the sidewalk.

"Then he turns sixteen and disappears off the face of the Earth." Beckett gave Castle a sidelong look. "You really have no idea what he got into after he ran away?" Castle regretfully shook his head.

"No. Like I said the only time I saw him after he bailed was that time at the circus." Beckett frowned.

"The circus would be the most obvious place for me to look for him, but I can't find any records of that particular circus anywhere." She ran a hand through her brown hair. "This is driving me crazy." Beckett muttered. Her phone went off, a sudden shrill sound. She pulled it out and placed it to her ear.

"Beckett." After a small pause, her eyes widened. "When? Are you serious, Esposito?" After a few more seconds, Beckett hung up the phone with a smile on her face.

"What?" Castle asked.

"Ryan and Esposito just picked up your brother." Beckett said, still smiling. "He's in holding at the station right now."

Castle's mouth dropped. "What? How? No one even knows what he looks like except for you, me, and Alexis."

Beckett shrugged as she quickened her pace, eager to get back to the station before Carter caught wind of their prisoner.

"I don't know. Esposito said that our cameras outside the station flagged him. We gotta hurry, Castle. He could disappear by the time we get there."

* * *

Beckett could hardly believe her luck. The ghost that she had been hunting had somehow fallen into her hands. She frowned a little; there was something off about this whole thing, if she was being honest with herself. Castle's brother was too good to be flagged by a camera and picked up by two NYPD detectives. Something was wrong.

"Where is he?" Beckett demanded, striding into the precinct. She was met by both Ryan and Esposito, who fell into step with her and Castle.

"He's in the holding cell for the moment. We were waiting for you to see what you wanted to do with him." Ryan replied. Beckett nodded as they marched into the room where the cells were.

Beckett stopped at the door, causing the others to jerk to a halt. They shot confused looks at each other, but didn't say anything.

Beckett let her eyes run over the man that she had been hunting for days.

He sat by himself in the cell, his hands cuffed together. His head was bowed, as if he was in thinking. He seemed relaxed for someone that was locked up and was potentially facing murder charges. His clothes were plain and nondescript, but sturdy and in some ways very military looking. Beckett had to admit, he was a good looking man, in a rugged sort of way.

"You just gonna stand there all day ogling me?" He spoke suddenly. Beckett jerked in surprise. He had made no indication that he had known they were there.

Beckett cleared her throat. "You're a hard man to find." She said coming around the cell so that she could face him. He shrugged in response and finally looked up. His eyes traveled along the rest of her group. They finally settled on Castle.

"Hey, Rick." He said. "How you doing?" Castle glared at his brother.

"Do you know how much trouble you're in?" Clint rolled his eyes.

"Dude, I'm not fifteen anymore. Haven't been for a long time." Castle didn't say anything to that, but his glare would have made lesser men quaver.

Clint turned his gaze back to Beckett and just like that, he was slammed with memories of Joanna Beckett. The pain of her death hit him again and his breath shortened, coming in short huffs.

He lifted his hands to his head rubbing his temples, trying to regain his composure. What was wrong with him? It's not like friends of his hadn't died before. Many of them were murdered just like Joanna. Maybe it was because he had never been faced with a family member of theirs before.

"Clint?" Castle spoke, his voice softer than it had been before. "Are you okay? What's going on?"

Clint dropped his hands back down to his lap and shot Castle a fake smile. "I'm fine."

Castle snorted, seeing right through his brother's façade.

Beckett's brow furrowed. She had seen the look that Clint had given her right before he seemly had a panic attack. She shook her head, trying to ignore Clint's discomfort and get her mind back on the case.

"Do you know why you're here, Mr. Castle?"

"My names not Castle." Clint said instead of answering her question. There was a surprised grunt from Castle. "It's…" Clint trailed off and shot a look at the blinking camera that hung on the wall. He shrugged as if to say, 'what the hell.' "It's Barton."

Beckett started again, "Fine. Barton, do you know why you're here?"

Clint nodded. "I do." Beckett's eyebrows went up. She hadn't been expecting him to readily answer any of her questions.

"Good." She said. "Then tell me why you're here."

"I'm here because I need to ask you a question." There was no joke in his eyes. He was completely serious.

"No, you're here because you messed up." Esposito snapped, taking a menacing step toward the bars. "And my partner and I arrested you."

Clint shot Esposito an amused look. "Is that really what you think?" He turned his attention back to the person that he had come to see.

"Beckett, I know who killed your mother." Beckett's eyes widened. "Or rather who ordered the hit on her. I can't tell you his name, but I want you to come with me. I want you to be there with me when we find him and bring him in."

His words rang in Beckett's ears, but she didn't say anything.

Clint was silent; he merely stared at her and waited for her answer.

Beckett broke her gaze away from Clint's. She cast Castle a pleading look, _what do I do_?

Castle shook his head. He didn't know what Clint was up to, but he didn't want Kate dragged into it.

Beckett looked back at Clint. "I don't work with criminals." She said finally. Clint's face fell, but he quickly covered up the emotions playing across his face.

"Fine." He said.

With that word, he leaned back against the barred wall, crossing his arms over his chest. He closed his eyes and appeared to be asleep.

"Hey!" Beckett snapped. "I'm not done questioning you." She banged on the cage, trying to get Clint's attention.

He lazily opened one eye, "Yeah? Well, I'm done talking to you."

* * *

"That son of a bitch." Beckett hissed, pacing in front of her desk. Castle was silently waiting for her to calm down, sitting in his usual seat.

"He's worse than you ever were, Castle."

Castle gave a faint smile, "Thanks."

"He knows who killed my mom!" She said, stopping her frantic pacing. Beckett dropped heavily into her chair. "He knows and I can't make him tell me." Her voice wavered and she dropped her head into her hands in an uncharacteristic show of weakness.

Castle hesitantly placed his hand on her hunched shoulder. "I'm sorry, Kate." He said softly. "Maybe, I can talk to him. I know how important it is for you to find the man how killed your mother. Clint can be a real pain in the ass, especially when he doesn't get his way."

Beckett looked up, smiling slightly. "Thanks, Castle. Maybe he'll talk to his own family."

* * *

"Clint." Castle snapped, marching into the holding room. "Stop pretending to be asleep."

Clint slowly opened both his eyes and sat up. He gave Castle a nod, "Hey, brother." Castle ignored Clint's greeting, plunging right into his angry tirade.

"You need to talk to Beckett. You need to tell her who killed her mother. You have no idea what that murder has been doing to her for all these years. Stop being a selfish bastard and talk to her. Now."

Clint's face grew hard and he got to his feet. He leaned forward up against the metal bars; his face inches from Castle's. The cold look in Clint's eyes made Castle back up a few steps.

"You have no idea what that murder has been doing to _me_. You have no right to come in here with your self-righteousness and pretend to know a damn thing about that murder." Clint hissed.

He spoke again, calmer than he had been before, "I offered to tell her. But not here. I tell her in here and we're all dead."

There was a commotion outside the room, but the brothers ignored it and continued to glare at each other.

"Clint…" Castle said his voice softer than it had been before. "What happened to you?"

Clint sighed, his anger dropping from him. He took a step back away from the bars. His cuffed hands went up to his face, rubbing his eyes.

"So much as happened, Rick, I can't even begin to explain it." He looked back up at his older brother. "Even if I wanted to tell you, I wouldn't be able to. Hell, I should have never come to you in the first place. When I get out of this mess my boss is going to kill me and then throw me in the middle of nowhere and put me on bird duty."

Castle gave a small chuckle and Clint's lips twitched.

"What? Is my pain funny to you?"

"No, no. It's just…bird duty. I don't know what the hell that is, but all that I can think of is when you used to hang out in the tree outside the apartment. We used to call it your nest. Do you remember?"

Clint laughed. "Yeah, I remember that. You should see the nest I have now."

More noise came from right outside the door. This time both brothers looked over to the closed door.

Clint gave a little sigh. "That's my ride." He mumbled. Castle frowned, not understanding what Clint meant by that.

The door was flung open and Agent Carter came striding in.

"What do you think you're doing?" She snapped at Castle. His eyes widened at the furious look in the red-haired woman's eyes.

"Get away from my prisoner."

Castle's eyes trailed behind Carter. Beckett was directly behind Carter; she was livid.

"You can't take away our only suspect!" She snapped. From the tone of her voice, Castle guessed Beckett had been repeating that sentence more than once.

Agent Carter stopped abruptly in her action of opening Clint's cell. She spun on her heel to face Beckett.

"Do I have to remind you, Detective Beckett, that this is no longer your case? It should not concern you where I take my prisoner because it is no longer your problem."

With those words, Carter swung open the door to Clint's cell. She reached out and grabbed his muscled arm. She jerked him out of the cell and he dutifully followed.

"Thank you, Detective Beckett, for holding my prisoner until I could come and get him." Carter said starting to march out the door.

Clint swiveled his head around to look at Castle and he opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something. But no words came out and within seconds he had been pulled out of the room.

* * *

"That was some pretty nice acting in there." Clint commented as he unlocked his handcuffs. He threw them on the car seat next to him.

Natasha raised her eyebrows, "What acting?" Clint smirked in response.

"Did you manage to talk Beckett into coming with you?" Natasha asked, suddenly serious.

Clint shook his head. "No."

Natasha sighed. "I told you it wasn't going to work."

"It was worth a try." Clint shot back.

They were silent in the car for a few moments.

"It's just you and me now, Tasha." Clint said. "Are you ready to take this guy down?"

Natasha merely looked at her partner. "Do you have to ask?"

Clint smiled faintly. "Just like old times."

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys. I'm so sorry that this took me so long to get out. I have so many good reasons for why it did take me such a long time, but you probably don't want to hear them. I'll try to be faster in the future. **

**Thanks to all my new readers and reviewers, as well as the old ones! You guys are the best! And ****thanks to cocoa85715 and Cylon One for being my betas. **

**I have a question for you guys: do you think that my flashbacks are getting too long and boring? Because I have a lot of backstory that I have planned, but I don't want to bore you guys with the flashbacks. **

**Lastly, on a side note: Whoever my IrishDancer (anonymous) reviewer is, I just want to say that I totally Irish Danced for ten years. I loved it. **

**Anyway, hopefully, I won't keep you guys waiting so long next time. Things are just so busy with school and all that.**


	7. Death of me

**[Death of me]**

"What I want to know is why Tombstone is still breathing?" Natasha asked. "If you're gone after him before, then why he still alive?"

Clint frowned as he tightened the straps on his arm guards.

"I had thought that we had taken care of him. Joanna and I. We got the dirt that we needed on him and she took him to court where he was convicted and sent to jail."

* * *

_ "Are you sure about this, Clint?" _

_ "You're the one that said we needed that file." Clint snapped through the phone, panic beginning to claw at his chest. _

_ "You're right." Joanna Beckett said, sounding regretful. "I guess, I didn't realize that by involving you I'm basically putting your life on the line." _

_ Clint gave a disbelieving laugh. "You just thought about that now?" He asked incredulously. Clint squeezed his eyes shut and pressed a fist into his forehead. _

_ "I've got to go." He said, "Mike will be here any second." Clint didn't wait for her to respond before he hung the phone up. _

_ "Heya, Hawk, who you talking to?" Clint spun on his heel, seeing Mike striding up to him. _

_ Clint's gaze narrowed. "Just a friend." _

_ "You don't have friends outside the circus, boy." Mike smirked. _

_ "We've been camped in New York for weeks, doing what Tombstone wants…I've met people." Mike raised his eyebrows and threw his hands up in defense. _

_ "Whatever. C'mon, son. Tombstone has a job for you."_

* * *

_ "Wait here." Mike said. "Don't touch anything." _

_ "Yeah, yeah." Clint muttered, watching as Mike shut the office door behind him, leaving Clint alone in Tombstone's office. _

_ Clint waited a beat before he dashed around the oak desk that sat under the huge window. _

_ He pulled on his gloves and began to open several drawers. He needed to find the file that Beckett had been talking about. The only problem was that there were hundreds of thick brown files crammed into Tombstone's desk. _

_ Clint pulled out several, quickly flipping through them. He glanced up at the door every few seconds, making sure that no one would come barging in on him. _

_ If he was caught by Tombstone, he was a dead man. _

_ Minutes passed and Clint's forehead began to bead with sweat. If he couldn't find that damned file, then Beckett would have to make due with another one. _

_ There! Clint's hand shot out, snatching up the file that sported red tape along the spine. _

_ He opened it to make sure that it was indeed the right one. It was. _

_ Clint carefully took out all the papers that had been placed in the file, stuffing them down his shirt. _

_ He held the empty file in his hands for a second. A smile crept onto his lips and he pulled a thick notepad that sat on the desk toward him. _

_ Taking a black pen, Clint scrawled onto the paper, "See you in court, sucker." With a grin still on his face Clint pushed the notepaper into the empty file and shoved it back into Tombstone's draw. _

_ He closed it with a snap and quickly walked back around the desk. _

_ Clint had only been standing there for a second or two when the door opened and Tombstone strode in. _

_ "Hello, Clint. How are you today?" Clint turned round to greet his boss with an easy smile, hoping that his face didn't betray the wild emotions that were running rampant inside him. _

_ "I'm doing well. A little restless to tell you the truth; I've been sitting on my ass for two weeks, twiddling my thumbs." _

_ Tombstone sat on his chair and opened one of the drawers. "I have just the job for you." He said with a small smile. Clint grinned in return. _

_ A file appeared in Tombstone's hand and he flipped it open, taking a quick glance at it. _

_ He slowly slid it across the desk toward Clint. "Take a look at your newest job." Clint pulled the file to him. Staring up at him was a picture of Joanna Beckett. She was striding out of her law office, a hurried look on her face. Clint's face remained impassive, though the emotions that were raging inside of him were anything but calm. _

_ "What's this woman done?" Clint asked, looking up at his boss again. _

_ "She's been causing me trouble for a few months now. I don't know how much she knows about our operation here, but she's too dangerous to stay alive." Clint swallowed hard. _

_ "You think death is the best route? Maybe I could just scare her into submission." _

_ "Clint." Tombstone said. He leaned forward, his hands clasped together on the top of his desk. _

_ "You heard what I said about her being dangerous. You know that death is the only way to ensure that the threat is neutralized. Why all the sudden objections?" Tombstone frowned. Clint remained silent, hoping his face didn't betray him. _

_ "Is it because she is a woman?" Tombstone asked in a surprisingly gentle tone. "Don't think of her that way. She's just another target. You don't even have to kill her face to face. You're my little sniper, you can take her from a distance." _

_ Clint felt himself nodding along. "Of course. I'm sorry for questioning you." Tombstone smiled, revealing his pointed teeth. _

_ "I'll expect to hear your report in a few days."_

* * *

"What happened?" Natasha asked, frowning. "If you got the dirt you needed on him and he went to jail then why is he out and Joanna dead?"

Clint's face darkened.

"He got out a few years after on a technicality. I'm sure that he had the jury and judge in his pocket." Clint stopped, trying to bring his anger under control.

"The first thing that he did after getting out was to send Tomas Sharp to kill Joanna Beckett. He was sent after me too, but obviously couldn't get to me because of SHIELD. I'm sure that Fury knew about him coming after me, but he failed to tell me that. He hadn't even told me that Joanna had died and I didn't even know that Tombstone had gotten out." Clint looked up at Natasha. "Fury didn't want me running off and doing what I'm doing right now."

"How did you find out in the end?" Natasha asked, but then nodded her head. "Of course. It was Coulson wasn't it?"

Clint nodded. "Yeah. He had wanted to tell me from the very beginning. Coulson didn't think that it was a good idea to keep me in the dark. Apparently, I'm prone to sudden outbursts of anger when things are kept from me." A grin quirked in the corner of Clint's mouth.

"He told me a week ago after I got back from a mission in Vietnam."

Natasha smirked. "You know Fury is going to have your ass when this is taken care of." She paused. "Probably mine too."

Clint raised his eyebrows. "Does this mean you want to back out now?" Natasha glared at him.

"Not a chance, Hawk boy."

* * *

Beckett groggily reached for her ringing phone; desperately hoping it wasn't a murder at this early hour.

"Hello?" She said hoarsely into the phone, her eyes still half closed.

"Hey." Came the soft reply. Beckett sat up in her bed, her grip tightening on the cell phone.

"Barton?" She snapped. "How the hell do you have this number?" Wild thoughts of his escape raced through her mind.

"Relax." His voice was amused. "I'm still in Agent Carter's custody. She's letting me make my phone call against her better judgment."

Beckett impatiently brushed her stray strands of hair out of her face. "What do you want?" She demanded.

There was a sigh on his end. "Look. I'm going to take him down." Beckett didn't need to ask who Barton meant. It was obvious that he was talking about Beckett's mother's murderer.

"I'm taking him down with or without your help, but I'd really like to have you come with me."

Beckett snorted. "I think you're forgetting that you're locked up with a federal agent and aren't going anywhere."

"I won't be locked up for long." Beckett could hear the smile in his words. "I want you to come with me. I swear, when we're done, when he's dead, you can take me to prison yourself. I'll come quietly." Beckett's eyebrows rose.

"I should trust you why?"

"Because…" Clint trailed off. Nothing he could say would make Beckett trust him. They both knew that.

"Beckett, please." Beckett's lips twisted. He sounded so much like Castle when he said her name like that.

She wanted to go with him badly. This was her chance to catch the son of a bitch that had killed her mother. But she knew that she couldn't trust the word of a criminal. Besides, as confident as he was, Barton was locked up and wasn't going anywhere.

"Look, Clint." Beckett said and she could almost see his face fall. "I can't go with you. You're going to jail because you killed someone. You've got to be brought to justice."

There was a soft snort from Clint's end. "If I was to pay for all my crimes then I would be in jail for a long, long time."

Beckett grimaced. "Then you're in the right place. Goodbye, Barton." Beckett pulled the phone away from her ear and in clutched it in her hand.

She stared at the phone for a moment and pulled up Castle's number. She hit send and pressed it back to her ear.

"Beckett?" Castle's voice came through, sounding worried. "Has there been another murder?"

"No." Beckett said, horrified that her voice sounded choked. "I just…Can I come over? Please. I just need someone to talk to."

* * *

"Here." Castle said, handing Beckett a cup of tea. He was dressed in his PJs and his hair was ruffled from sleep.

"I'm sorry." Beckett said, "I woke you, didn't I?"

Castle shook his head, sitting down on the armchair that was opposite of Beckett.

"Nah. I couldn't sleep because of…well, because of Clint."

"You and me both." Beckett said, trying to sound lighthearted.

"What happened?" Castle asked quietly.

Beckett swallowed some of the tea.

"Clint called me." She said after a moment. Castle's eyebrows rose. "He wanted me to come with him…wherever that is."

"He's certainly persistent." Castle commented. "What did you tell him?"

"I said no." Beckett replied. "But, Castle…I wanted to go with him. I want to know what he knows about my mother's murder."

"It's understandable." Castle said, "Clint can be persuasive when he wants to be." Castle's brow furrowed. "But where did he want to go? I mean, he's locked up by that Agent Carter and I doubt even Clint can get away from her."

Beckett shrugged. She fingered the edge of her ceramic cup, looking down into its murky contents.

"Tell me about him." She said suddenly, looking back up into Castle's eyes. "Tell me about the Clint Rogers you used to know."

* * *

_Thunk, thunk, thunk! The arrows thudded into the straw target. Clint turned to face Rick, a victorious smirk on his face. _

"_Beat that." He said, moving aside for Rick to step up to the line._

_Rick shook his head, pushing away the bow that Clint had started to hold out for him. _

"_Bows are for sissys." Rick said, pulling out a pump action pellet gun. "Guns are for real men." Clint rolled his eyes. _

"_Yeah, yeah. Whatever."_

* * *

Beckett smiled. "That's what you did in your free time? You shot guns and arrows?" Castle sheepishly shrugged.

"I didn't like it that much. I didn't see the point in learning. Clint liked it, though."

"Where you close?" Beckett asked carefully. Castle averted his eyes.

"For a while, but after I hit high school I decided I was too cool for him." Beckett grimaced, knowing what came next.

* * *

"_Clint!" Rick yelled, reaching his arms into the mass of bodies. He could see his brother right in the thick of the fight. Rick had a sinking feeling that Clint was probably the one that had started the fight in the first place._

"_Clint!" Rick yelled again, receiving a jab in the face from a flying elbow._

_Rick's head snapped back, but he ignored the stinging pain and shot a hand out, grabbing a hold of Clint's sweatshirt. He yanked on the sweatshirt, jerking Clint away from the brawl. _

_Rick stopped a few feet away from the still fighting students, his hands on Clint's shoulders as he examined Clint's swelling lip. _

"_What the hell do you think you were doing?" He snapped at his brother, after he concluded that Clint would survive. _

_Clint angrily shrugged off Rick's hands. "What did it look like I was doing?" Clint gingerly touched his lip and winced. _

"_Why do you keep getting into these fights?" Rick asked helplessly, the anger fading from him. _

"_Why do you care?" Clint snapped. "It's not like you pay any attention to me anyway."_

* * *

Beckett winced. "Ouch."

Castle nodded his agreement, "Yeah, he was pissed at me. He left angry at me. Honestly, I don't know why he came to see me last week; before this whole mess started."

Beckett didn't have an answer for him. They sat in silence, both lost in their own thoughts of Clint.

Beckett's phone went off, startling both of them.

She picked up from the coffee table and glanced at the screen. Beckett didn't recognize the number, but she answered it anyway.

"This is Beckett."

"You'll find what you're looking for at is at the Riverside Hospital in the Bronx." The voice was distorted.

"What?" Beckett said.

"You'll have your revenge there. Move quickly; he won't stay at the one place for long."

"Who is this?" Beckett demanded. Instead of an answer she was met with a dial tone.

"Who was that?" Castle asked, on the edge of his seat.

"I don't know." Beckett replied, getting to her feet. "But he told me that I have to go to a hospital in the Bronx and I'll have my revenge." She looked up at Castle, confusion and excitement in her eyes.

"Do you think it's Clint?" Castle asked also standing.

"There's only one way to find out."

* * *

**A/N: ****Thanks for all the reviews and subs! **

**And thank you to everyone who answered my question about the flashbacks. It really helped me. **

**Now I have another question for you. What do you all think of Tombstone? I've never seen or read anything about that character and I don't know how well I'm writing him. **

**I have finals next week, but after that is Christmas break so I should get a bunch of writing done (which means more chapters for all of you!). **


	8. Into the Darkness

**[Into the Darkness]**

"Take a look." Natasha said, handing Clint the binoculars. He took them from her and pressed them to his eyes.

"I don't see anyone, yet" Clint said his eyes still against the binoculars. "This place is a ghost town." He looked back over to Natasha.

"Is Coulson sure this is the place?"

Natasha nodded. "That Andy guy that you captured was pretty chatty after I was done with him. He told me that this is where Tombstone is running his operations now. Coulson checked and he's sure there's something going on here."

Clint gave her an uneasy nod. "It doesn't look like a place we used to use."

"They're not going to continue with how they used to operate, Clint. Tombstone has to know that you're out here, and he doesn't know who you might be working for."

Clint nodded again. "Yeah…" He stared off into the distance and his mind seemed to have wondered.

"Look." Natasha said. "You can't keep thinking about Beckett."

Clint shot her a look; Natasha always seemed to know what was bothering him.

"She made her choice, and you made yours. We're going to find Tombstone, kick his ass, and then Beckett will know the truth about her mother. Fury will let you tell her before he sends you packing to some job. So stop worrying about it."

Clint gave her a small smile and nodded. "Thanks, Nat." He nudged her with his shoulder.

"That's what I'm here for, Hawk Boy."

* * *

"_Here it is." Clint said sliding the papers across the diner table, as he glanced around the diner nervously. He had made sure that no one had followed him from the carnival grounds, but he still needed to watch his back. If Tombstone caught whiff of what Clint was doing; it was his ass that was on the line. _

_Joanna took the papers and looked them over carefully. She glanced up at Clint, excitement in her eyes. _

"_This is just what we need, Clint. These papers give us the arms operation he's running in New York. With this we can bring him to justice._

_Clint nodded, not feeling the excitement that Joanna was. He held up his coffee cup, "Cheers." _

"_I could have never done it without you, Clint." She added, reaching her hand out to touch his hand that rested on the table. _

_He flinched at the contact and jerked his hand away. Clint ducked his head, not wanting to see her hurt look. He couldn't help the fact that he didn't like to be touched. It was something that most men with a job like his hated; the psychical touch from people like Joanna. _

"_Sorry." He muttered. _

"_It's alright." Joanna said softly. "I should have realized." Clint looked up and saw that Joanna was now looking at him with something close to pity. _

"_I'm a mother, Clint, and you remind me in some ways of my daughter. I should have known that―,"_

"_I don't want your sympathy." Clint snapped, suddenly angry. Who was she to pretend that she knew anything about him? "You don't know me!" He shouted, forgetting that he was supposed to be keeping a low profile. "So stop pretending like you do!" _

"_Clint!" Joanna said calmly. "Relax. Just calm down." _

_Clint glared at her from across the booth table. His hand was clenched into a fist underneath the table and he could feel his anger boiling under the surface of his skin. _

_With one last glare at Joanna he got out of the booth. He dug his hand into his pocket and dropped some change onto the table._

_In one swift motion, Clint pulled his black hood low over his face and stuffed both his hands into his pockets as he strode out of the diner. _

_He could feel the rest of the customers burning holes into his back as he shoved the glass door open, and he knew that Tombstone would probably catch wind of his meeting with Joanna; he was a dead man no matter where he went. _

_Clint turned to his right and started walking down the almost empty sidewalk. Rain was beginning to patter down, and the night sky seemed to engulf him with its silence. _

"_Clint!" There was a call behind him. "Wait up!" Clint didn't slow his pace. He regretted snapping at Joanna, but he wasn't going to slow for her to talk to him. He didn't need a mother, never did before, and never would need one. _

"_Clint." Her hand grabbed his arm and he flinched in her grip, but this time she held on. _

"_Stop." She commanded. Clint came to a shuddering halt. Joanna wrenched him around to face her. Her face was stern, but he could see compassion hidden in the depths of her eyes. _

_She reached her free hand out and tilted his chin up. "You're right. I don't know anything about you and I shouldn't have pretended that I did. But you're wrong to think that I don't care about you because I do. When I said that you remind me of my daughter, I didn't mean that I knew you. I just meant that I think of you as someone close and dear to me. You may not think it, but you need me just as much as I need you. You don't have to brave this road alone, Clint. I've already told you before, I can help you. Tombstone won't be able to get you. You'll be safe. You don't even need to go back to the circus, you can come home with me, and I'll call my people." _

_Clint's lips were in a rigid line as he listened to her talk, but he could feel his eyes starting to prickle with emotion. No one, not even his own mother, had ever told him that he was important to them and that they would protect him. _

"_I'm sorry, Clint." She whispered and slowly wrapped her arms around the boy. Clint was rigid in her embrace for only a moment before he buried his face into her jacket and pulled her closer to him. _

_Unknown to Clint and Joanna a hidden person watched the scene unfold from the depths of a dark alley._

* * *

Clint's eyes caught sudden movement at the front gate.

"Nat." Clint said, "Someone's here."

Natasha took the binoculars from Clint and peered through them.

"It looks like a car." Clint frowned.

"Who would be here at four in the morning?" He dug around in his bag and pulled out one of his scopes to look through.

Within seconds, he focused the scope on the car and the two people getting out of it.

"Damnnit." He muttered as his eyes landed on Castle and Beckett. "What the hell are they doing here?"

"It doesn't matter what they're doing here." Natasha shot back. "What matters is that they're about to go into a building that's probably one of Tombstone's operating centers. They're about to step into some serious shit."

* * *

"Beckett, this suddenly doesn't seem like a good idea." Castle said as he stepped out of the car. "We didn't tell anyone where we were going and it's four in the morning. They could kill us and dump our bodies in one of the rooms in this creepy old hotel. No one would know what happened to us."

Castle pulled his coat closer together as he and Beckett stared up at the old brick building. "Alexis and mother would be sad for a while, but they would probably be able to survive without their old dad. Though, mother would probably spend all my money and then they would be out on the streets with no one to take care of them." Castle's eyes widened in panic. "Beckett, we have to go back!"

Beckett rolled her eyes. "Really, Castle? Do you really think that's all going to happen? You have friends that will take care of them if we die―not that we're going to die!"

Beckett glared at Castle. "Now stop stalling and come with me." She pulled out her gun and flashlight.

Beckett led the way to the front door of the old hospital building with Castle close on her heels.

"What do you think we're going to find?" Castle asked quietly as they neared the door.

"Hopefully some answers." Beckett replied without taking her eyes off the door.

Castle nodded. "I was going to say the same thing…only what I was thinking was more along the lines of death and doom; maybe a dead body or two."

"Castle. Shut. Up." Beckett bit out.

"Yep."

The door loomed a few feet away from them and they both stopped, unsure of what they were supposed to do next.

"Do we knock?" Castle asked.

Beckett didn't need to answer as the door creaked open.

They stared at the dark opening, waiting for someone to come through, but no one did.

"Well, that's completely normal." Castle commented.

Beckett started walking forward, her light giving little light for them to see by.

"Beckett…" Castle moaned and trailed after her.

* * *

They hadn't gotten very far into the first room when a blinding light suddenly flashed on.

Beckett and Castle stopped in their tracks, squinting at the light.

"I'm glad you could make it, Ms. Beckett." A voice rang out.

A figure walked into view. Beckett sized the small man up and down, concluding that he didn't look like much. Just an old man with a greasy haircut.

"Who are you?" Beckett demanded.

The man chuckled. "You can call me Michael." Castle frowned as his sharp eyes took in the new shapes that had slowly filled the empty room. Whatever was about to go down here, he and Beckett were outgunned and outmanned.

"You said that I would find some answers here." Beckett continued, her eyes focused on Michael. "Well? Tell me what you brought me here for."

Michael didn't answer right away; instead he took a few steps forward so that he was a few feet away from Castle and Beckett.

He grinned at them, though it was more like a leer in Castle's opinion.

"Tell me, Mr. Rodgers, how is your little brother doing?" Castle's mouth went dry.

"Excuse me." Michael chuckled. "I suppose you don't go by Rodgers anymore. Just like your brother doesn't go by his sir name either."

"How do you know my name?" Castle choked out.

"Your brother told me about you. He told me all about your 'stupid books'. His words not mine."

"What the hell is going on here?" Beckett snapped, bringing her gun up. Michael didn't look impressed by the gun barrel that was poked in his face.

"You wanted answers, Beckett; I'm willing to give them to you. Unfortunately, that's not the reason I brought you here."

Beckett felt her stomach drop.

"I need bait." Michael went on. "Lonnie wants his Hawk, so he tells me 'Find leverage.'" Michael smiles widely. "So I find you two."

Castle began to back away from the man, his hand catching Beckett's arm.

"I know that Clint may have talked big back then, but he cares about his blood. He'll come running from whatever nest he's hiding in to save his dear brother and the daughter of the woman he saved."

"What?" Beckett said faintly. "He saved my mom?"

"Beckett." Castle hissed. "We need to go."

"Go?" Michael said. "But there's nowhere to go, Mr. Castle."

Castle turned on his heel, seeing that they were surrounding by men dressed in black.

"Please, don't cause problems." Michael said.

"Like hell." Castle growled and grabbed Beckett's arm to run.

They didn't get very far.

* * *

**A/N: I know this is a really short chapter and I'm sorry about that, but I really wanted to get something out for you guys. I wrote this really quickly so there's probably lots of mistakes. Also, ****since I'm on break, I should get a few more chapters out fairly quickly, so you guys shouldn't have to wait so long. **

**I also want to thank you all so much for all the feedback and reviews and ****I hope you all had a great Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. **


	9. Enter: Villain

**[Enter: Villain]**

Castle slowly regained consciousness. He lifted his head up from his chest and blinked owlishly in the dim light.

"Beckett?" He said his voice hoarse. Castle looked around the small, damp room that he was being held in.

It was completely bare except for the chair that he was tied to and Beckett, who was also tied to a chair.

"Beckett." Castle tried again, his voice stronger this time. "Wake up."

Beckett twitched, but didn't wake up.

"Dammit, Beckett." Castle snapped. He didn't want to be the only one awake when they came for them.

He didn't know what was going on, other than someone from Clint's shady past had come back and that they needed Castle and Beckett for something. Castle _did_ know that whatever they thugs wanted them for, it wasn't going to be good.

"Castle?" Beckett suddenly asked as she woke up.

Castle's head snapped to the side and he felt relief fill his chest. He strained against the ropes that kept him bound to the chair.

"Beckett, how are you feeling?"

"Been better." She groaned. Beckett looked up at Castle, her dark hair falling into her face. "What do they want with us, Castle? Why would they keep us here?"

Castle swallowed. "I don't know. But this all has something to do with Clint." Castle glared at the metal door that was the only way in or out. "I'm going to kill that kid when I get my hands on him."

"What did they mean that Barton saved my mother?" Beckett asked ignoring what Castle had said. "He didn't save her. She's dead."

"I don't know." Castle responded quietly. "Maybe he saved her once before that night."

Beckett bit her bottom lip to keep the prickling tears to not fall from her eyes.

"Hey." Castle said, knowing that Beckett was barely holding it together. "We're going to be fine. We'll get out of this mess like we always do and we'll go to Agent Carter and make Clint talk to us. He'll have to tell us what he knows about your mother."

Beckett smiled faintly. "Thanks, Castle."

For a moment the two of them sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

The metal door suddenly opened and a figured stepped through. It was Michael from before.

"You're two lucky people." He said gleefully. "The boss is here to talk to you directly."

Castle looked past Michael's shoulder as a second man came into the room. He felt his stomach drop as he looked at the huge man that stood before him. It didn't matter if they managed to get the drop on Michael, there was no way that they would be able to get past this man.

The man smiled revealing sharply pointed teeth. "Pleased to finally meet you, Mr. Castle. I must say that I'm a big fan of your books." The man turned his gaze to Beckett.

"And I've been wanted to meet you ever since I met your mother." He smiled again. "I'm Lonnie Lincoln, but you may call me Tombstone."

Beckett stiffened and struggled against the ropes. "How did you know my mother?" She snapped.

Tombstone put his hands behind his back and walked closer to the two chairs.

"I didn't know her that well. However, I did order a hit on her that didn't go according to plan and she then had me arrested and thrown into jail." Tombstone smirked. "She didn't count on me getting out and finishing the job. Granted it was a few years later."

"You son of a bitch." Beckett snarled.

"What do you want with us?" Castle asked, bringing Tombstone's attention to him.

"I don't want anything with you." Tombstone said giving Castle a hard look. "I want your brother. My little Hawk has been gone for far too long and I need him back."

Castle swallowed. "Clint has been arrested. He's not going to be coming anytime soon."

Tombstone let out a loud laugh. "It seems, Mr. Castle, that I know more about your brother than you do. He'll be coming. In fact," Tombstone checked his watch. "He's probably on his way right now."

* * *

"Clint, you need to calm down." Natasha said evenly. She held her hands out, inches from his shoulders.

Clint shot her a glare. "They have them. Those idiots went into the warehouse and now Tombstone has them."

"You don't know that for sure." Natasha tried to say, but knew it was a lie.

"He wants me back." Clint said with a certainty. "He's kidnaped them because he wasn't able to have me taken care of all those years ago like he did with Joanna. He didn't know where I went, but after I killed his man a couple of days ago, he knows that I'm back in town."

Clint stood up, bringing his bow up with him. His mouth was set into a grim line.

"We're going to go in there and take them back."

Natasha slowly shook her head, also standing up. "No. We can't do that. You know we can't do that. We have to get a feel for the area; we have to know exactly what we're going to do before we go bursting in there."

"But I do know exactly what we're doing. Saving Rick and Beckett and killing Tombstone."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "You idiot. That's not a real plan."

Clint cracked a grin. "It is now."

* * *

"How do you know Clint?" Castle asked, bringing Tombstone's eyes back to him. "What you want with him?"

For the first time Tombstone showed an emotion that wasn't a mocking them.

"Clint was my most reliable man." Tombstone said slowly. "I would give him an assignment and he would take it without any questions asked."

Beckett frowned. "What type of assignments?"

Tombstone looked up and gave her a smile. "I don't suppose either of you really know what Clint did or who he really is. Your brother, Mr. Castle, my employee, killed for a living."

Castle's mouth went dry. He knew his little brother was in some serious shit, but he didn't think it was that bad.

"He killed for me, to be exact." Tombstone went on. "He was the youngest hit man that I had ever seen. He was also the best." Tombstone paused with a faraway look on his face. If Castle didn't know better he would have sworn the look on Tombstone's face was pride.

"Everything was good with the boy for as long as he had been under my care…until he threw his lot in with a lawyer." Tombstone looked at Beckett. "Your mother. She took him under her care and he turned against me. He helped her bring me to court…but I got out." Tombstone grinned. "It took me a few years, but I got out and I had the problem taken care of."

He looked at Beckett with mock pity. "I sent my man to kill your mother."

Beckett let out a yell of rage and struggled in her chair. "Bastard!"

"I also sent him after Clint, but my man failed in that account. He couldn't find the hawk; Clint had disappeared…until he popped up again a few days ago. I knew it was him as soon as I heard that Tomas was dead. I didn't even need to know that Tomas was killed with a bow and arrow."

* * *

Clint knew that was he was about to do was probably one of the stupidest things that he had ever done in his life and that was saying something.

"Just follow my lead. It'll be fine." He said with a confidence that he didn't quite feel.

"Clint…" Natasha moaned. But she was ready to follow him, like he asked.

"We've faced way worse. Remember that mission in Germany?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. She faced the building that they were about to enter, clenching her hands into fists. "Are we going to do this or what?"

* * *

"_My little Hawk," Tombstone said, reaching his hands forward and taking Clint's face between both his hands. "I've heard the most disturbing news about you, and I want you to tell me if it's lies or the truth." _

_Clint nodded calmly, though he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. _

_Tombstone gave a nod to one of his men standing near the door. "Bring her in." _

_The door opened, and a woman was shoved in. Clint clenched his teeth together to keep himself from crying out; it was Joanna. _

"_Clint." Tombstone said, resting his hands on Clint's shoulders. "I want you to kill her. We can dump the body somewhere else, but right now I need to know that your loyalties still lie with me." _

_Clint looked up into Joanna's eyes. She was scared, but trying not to show it. Clint swallowed, his mind racing; trying to find a way out of the mess. Joanna caught his eyes, and slowly nodded._

"_I…" Clint started to say, looking around at Tombstone. "How…do you want me to kill her?" Clint choked out. _

_Tombstone's dark eyes seemed to soften. "I'm so sorry, Clint. I never wanted you to be put in this position, but you have to understand where I'm coming from. I need to know that my men are loyal to me and me alone." _

"_I understand." Clint said shortly._

"_Good." Tombstone smiled. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a Tanto Ka-Bar. Tombstone held the knife out and slowly Clint grasped the blade in his hand. _

_He slowly turned to face Joanna again. His grip on the knife tightened and his breath began to race. _

_He had killed before. There was times when he killed because he was going to be killed himself. He had killed women and sometimes children before. Joanna had given her permission for him to save himself, but Clint suddenly realized that he didn't want to be saved if it meant killing his friend. _

"_No." Clint said suddenly and loudly. _

"_What?" Tombstone said, as if his ears had deceived him. "What did you just say?" _

"_I said no." Clint said turning to face his former boss once again. "I'm not killing for you again. Not now and not ever." _

_Tombstone's eyes narrowed. He gave a nod over Clint's shoulder to the other men. "Take the woman outside and slit her throat."_

"_No!" Clint screamed. "Never again, asshole!" He pulled the knife back and plunged it at Tombstone's chest. _

_The knife went through the clothes and pierced Tombstone's ice hard chest, but Clint wasn't paying attention to his boss anymore. He had ripped the knife out and turned his attention to the two men that were holding onto Joanna. _

_He threw the knife at one of the men and jumped at the other man. The Ka-Bar sliced through the man's throat as Clint tackled the other man to the ground. _

_He screamed as he punched his fist into the other man's face over and over again. Clint felt the man's nose break under his knuckles and the hot and wet feel of the red blood splashed across his raw knuckles. _

"_Clint! Clint, stop!" Something grabbed his arm, and Clint snapped out of his fury. _

_He snapped his head to the side, and saw Joanna staring at him in horror. Clint slowly got to his feet and let his bloody hand drop to his side. _

_The two of them stared at each other for a second; Joanna with horror and Clint with shame. _

"_C'mon." Clint said lowly. "We need to move."_

* * *

**A/N: Sorry that this chapter isn't that good and it doesn't have Clint and Natasha saving the day quite yet. The reason it's so short is because I want to get a chapter out for you guys before school gets too crazy (I just started my 2nd semester today...word of advice: Never take anatomy if you can help it) and because I want this story to last just a little bit longer. Because Nighthawks is coming to a close; just a few more chapters, I think, and then it'll be all done. **

**Thanks for all the continued support through reviews, favorites and follows! I appreciate every one of them. **

**Also, if there are any glaring mistakes, please let me know so I can change it. Thanks! **


	10. We Will Fight as Long as We Live

**[We Will Fight as Long as We Live]**

"_Get down on your knees!" Rough hands snatched at Clint's arms, and acting on instinct Clint grabbed one of the men's arms and flipped the man onto his back. He had the man on the gravel with the man's arm twisted and with his boot on the man's chest. _

"_Clint!" Joanna yelled at him. "Let him go. They're my backup. They're here to help." _

_Clint let out his breath slowly, and released the writhing man. _

"_Sorry." He mumbled, taking a few steps back from the man and Joanna. He looked down at his bloodstained hands and gritted his teeth. _

"_That's fine, son." A deep voice rang out. "Don't try something like that again. We're the good guys."_

_Clint looked up and caught sight of the man who had spoken. A bald, black man was striding to him, his leather jacket flapping out behind him. _

"_Nick Fury." The man said, holding his hand out for Clint to grasp. "We're here to help you."_

* * *

Clint led the way into the dark building with Natasha following closely behind him. She didn't say a word as they made their way to one of the side doors of the building, but Clint could feel her disapprove radiating from her.

They stopped at the metal door that was located on the right side of the building. Clint walked forward silently and pressed his palms against the door.

"It's locked." He reported, receiving a snort from Natasha.

"What did you expect?" She said. "It's not as if they would leave us an easy way in."

Clint chose to ignore her remarks and said instead, "Do you want to pick it or shall I?"

* * *

"Do you want to know more about your brother?" Tombstone asked softly. He leaned in to his prisoners, his eyes glinting in the dim light.

Castle glared at the man and shook his head. "No, I don't need to hear anything more."

"Why? Is it because you're afraid of what you'll learn of the man that you thought you knew?" Tombstone asked, amused.

"No." Castle said, "It's because I don't need to hear more to know that Clint is, and will always be, my brother. It doesn't matter what he's done. That's in his past now."

"Is it?" Tombstone said, hoping to plant a seed of doubt in Castle's mind.

"Yes, it is." Beckett said, speaking for the first time since she had found out that Tombstone had sent a man to kill her mother. "Clint is a good man, Castle, you know that. Don't believe this man's lies."

Tombstone turned his gaze on her with mild irritation on his face. "You hardly know Clint. How can you presume to know him?"

Beckett glared at Tombstone. "I can read people. I know that Clint is a good man, despite what he may have done in his past." She paused and then said, "I also know that you are an evil son of a bitch that will pay for what you did to my mother."

For the first time Tombstone looked angry. He strode forward and slapped Beckett across the face. Her head snapped to the side, as Castle let out a furious yell from his chair.

"It would be wise not to speak to me like that." Tombstone warned in a quiet tone. He stepped away from both of his prisoners and crossed his arms over his chest.

Beckett lifted her head, her lip spilt and bleeding, but looking all the more defiant.

Tombstone looked away from her gaze, just as a loud cry sounded from outside the door.

He turned back with a thin smile on his lips. "It appears our young friend has arrived."

* * *

The men that were waiting inside the building were some of the easiest hired muscle that Clint and Natasha had ever had to take care of. They fell like pins as the two assassins plowed their way through them.

For a quick second amidst his fist flying, Clint couldn't help but wonder if it was_ too_ easy. But he brushed that thought aside; he couldn't afford to let doubts fill his mind.

Out of the corner of Clint's eye, he saw Natasha take down one of the last men with a quick jab to his face. The man's face was one of complete surprise before he tipped backward, landing on the cement ground.

Clint gave her a grunt of approval, turning to face the last man, but the man, seeing that he was outnumbered and the damage that the agents had caused turned on his heel and took off running the opposite direction from them.

Clint grinned at Natasha. "Seems that we're scarier then I first believed." Natasha didn't respond, her mind on the mission at hand.

"Come on." She said, leading the way through the dark building. "They'll probably be held in a storage room or something."

Clint nodded his agreement and followed Natasha's lead without question.

* * *

"There." Natasha jerked her chin in the direction of a metal door that was firmly shut. Clint nodded his agreement; that seemed like one of the most likely places for his brother and the detective to be kept.

"Let's see if anyone's in." He quipped, striding forward. He placed his palm against the door, pushing against it.

"We're not going to be kicking this down anytime soon." Clint said quietly, looking over to his friend.

"Should we blow it?" Natasha responded, her hand going down to her belt where she kept the explosives.

Clint shook his head. "No. We don't know who's in there and we don't want Rick or Beckett getting hurt by the blast."

Natasha nodded, waiting for his lead.

"I think the door might be unlocked." Clint said after a few moments of staring at the door. "If they're in here, like I expect they are, Tombstone wants me to come to him."

"Is Tombstone here?" Natasha asked, feeling as if she had missed the memo, which was a feeling that she didn't have often.

Clint pressed his lips into a thin line. "I think so. This whole thing just feels like him. I don't think that he would pass up the opportunity to get at me again."

Clint's eyes were locked onto Natasha's and he could see that she understood what he was saying even though it was irrational to think that Tombstone was in the room or even in the building when they had seen no sign of it.

Clint looked back to the door and reached for the handle. It was cold against his hand and Clint shivered, trying not to think of what he would do if Tombstone really was in the room.

Clint gave Natasha one last nod, before he wrenched the door open in one swift moment.

He dove into the room, his bow in hand. Clint felt Natasha behind him, but his eyes were fixed on the tall figure that stood in the back of the room.

"Tombstone." Clint hissed, nocking an arrow to his bow string.

"Hello, Clint." Tombstone replied calmly, "Nice of you to join us." He gestured to Castle and Beckett with one hand.

Clint's eyes flickered over his brother and Beckett.

"Wow, Lonnie, you must have wanted me pretty badly if you've kept them alive this long." Clint said, slowly walking farther into the room. The muscles in his arm were taunt from holding the string back.

"How's that helping, Clint?" Castle said through gritted teeth.

"Shut up, Rick." Clint said without missing a beat. "I've got this handled."

"It's true," Tombstone said also ignoring Castle. "I did want to talk to my hawk again."

"I'm not _your_ hawk." Clint was quick to say. "How about this: let them go―," He jerked his chin in Castle and Beckett's direction. "―And I'll stay to talk to you."

Tombstone let out a laugh. "You _have_ changed. Before, you never would have cared about what happened to your brother or anyone else."

Clint inclined his head in agreement, saying, "And I never would have brought backup with me."

For the first time Tombstone looked confused. Then there was soft cough from Clint's left, and Black Widow stepped into the light with two Glocks in both hands. One of the guns was pointed at Tombstone, while the other was pointed at Michael, who was cowering in the corner of the room.

Tombstone's eyebrows went up, as a gasp came from both Beckett and Castle.

"The famous Black Widow." Tombstone said mildly. "I should have known that Clint would team up with a killer like him."

"Wait—what?" Castle said, "Agent Carter is working with Clint?"

"I knew it!" Beckett exclaimed from her chair, "I knew there was something wrong with you."

Natasha flashed Beckett a quick smile, which didn't do much to reassure her.

Tombstone slowly raised his large hands, "Now, what, Clint? There's two of you against two of us." Clint's eyes glanced over to where Michael stood huddled in his corner. Clint's blue eyes widened.

"Magic Mike?" He asked in disbelief.

"Funny, isn't it?" Tombstone commented. "How your old skeletons come falling out of your closet when you least expect it."

Clint turned his focus back to Tombstone, ignoring Mike. "How are you still alive? I stabbed you myself." Clint said buying time as he edged closer to his brother.

Tombstone laughed. "Look at me. My skin is rock hard; your little knife couldn't harm me…and neither can your arrow."

"Well, I can do a hell of a lot with it." Clint said, suddenly turning his bow at Mike and releasing the arrow, while at the same time moving to where Castle and Beckett were tied. In two swift motions Clint had cut through their bonds. In another quick motion, Clint had his bow slung over his back and had grabbed both Castle and Beckett by their collars and was dragging them backward toward the door.

"Sonuvabitch." Mike moaned slumping to the floor with the arrow protruding from his shoulder.

He lifted his head up and glared at Clint, "You missed." He bit out angrily.

Clint laughed harshly. "Trust me, if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

Mike's face blanched and he fell silent.

There was a slow clapping from the back of the room where Tombstone stood.

"Very good." He said. "I wouldn't have expected anything less from you, Clint."

He glanced over to where Natasha was started to move to the door, her guns still up and pointed at him.

"Except you've forgotten one thing."

"Yeah, what's that?" Clint said his bow back in his hands with another arrow nocked.

"I brought back up as well."

Clint didn't spend too much time dwelling on what exactly Tombstone meant by that comment. He shoved Castle and Beckett out the door, following them closely with Natasha at his side.

All four of them were running away from the room, when they heard it; the sound of pounding feet.

Clint skidded to a halt, the others stopping as well. He squinted into the dark corridor, his grip on his bow tightening.

"Looks like we're gonna have company." He said calmly as he pulled the bow string back so that the string was touching against his cheek.

"Wait, what?" Castle said from beside his brother. "There are more people coming?" He couldn't keep the high pitched nervousness out of his voice.

Clint glanced at Castle and Beckett, who were looking at him with a mixture of blame and pleading.

Clint slowly loosened the taunt string and reached down to his boot where he kept his extra berretta. He pulled it out and gave it to Castle.

"There. Now you're armed." He turned his attention back to the oncoming men.

"We should probably find cover, Hawkeye." Natasha commented from next to him.

He looked over at his friend, and nodded. She was right of course. He should have thought of it, but he was too emotional and strung up to think straight; the exact reason why Fury hadn't wanted him on this mission.

Clint's eyes flicked across the dim hall, and landed on his brother and Beckett, who stood at his side. Castle looked terrified, but had a determined look as he clutched the gun that Clint had given him.

Clint caught Natasha's eyes and nodded at the other two. She gave him a slow nod in return.

"You both need to go." Clint said aloud to Castle and Beckett. "Now."

Beckett looked outraged. "No!" She snapped. "We've come too far to leave now. I owe it to my mother to stay and take in her killer."

Clint's eyes flashed. "Don't worry about him. I'll make sure he's taken care of. You both need to go. This isn't your fight anymore."

"No." This time it was Castle who spoke up. Castle's voice had become firm, "This became my fight when they threatened my little brother."

Clint let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine! You're going to get yourselves killed." He snapped, and turned his attention to Tombstone's men that were coming into view.

"We need to get out of this hall." Clint said to Natasha. She gave him a curt nod and then led the way out of the hall and into the main room. This room was open and had heavy pillars lining either side of the room.

Clint jerked his chin at the closest pillar, "Take cover behind those." He said. Castle and Beckett did as he commanded, hiding behind the nearest pillar to the only exit.

Clint positioned himself behind the pillar that was the closet to the hall entrance. He looked over at his red headed friend and gave her a small nod as Tombstone's men started to come through the doorway.

Clint let his arrow fly from his bow. It flew straight and pierced through the first soldier's throat, knocking him off his feet. The other soldiers, Clint counted at least fifteen, ignored their fallen comrade and continued to come at them, their assault rifles firing into the cement pillars.

There was a burst of gunfire from behind Clint and another soldier was down. Clint spared a quick glance behind, where Castle was gripping a smoking gun, his face tight, but determined.

"Nice shot." Clint commented, as he let loose another arrow. The arrow took down another soldier, but now the soldiers were concentrating their bullets onto his pillar. Clint winced as the bullets thudded into the pillar, and kept his head and body behind the protection.

There was a abrupt pause in the firing of his pillar, and then a soldier was sudden around the corner, his gun poking into Clint's face.

Clint jerked back, his hand snapping out to push the barrel of the gun to the side of his head. The gun went off, missing his head by inches.

Clint brought his heavy bow up and smashed it into the side of the soldier's head, knocking him off his feet and onto the ground. He felt a moment of satisfaction before he was wrenched off his feet and then thrown to the side.

He flew across the room until his body slammed into the nearest wall. His bow flew from his hands and he slumped against the wall, momentarily dazed.

Clint felt hands grab the front of his jacket and then he was slammed against the wall again; his feet dangled inches above the floor and his head bounced into the wall causing a ringing to fill his head.

Clint struggled in the much larger man's grasp, bringing a hand up to push at the man's face. The giant of a man didn't seem to be affected by Clint's hand in his face. Instead, he tightened his grip on Clint and pressed him harder into the wall.

Clint let out an involuntary gasp of pain, as his back was crushed against the cement wall.

The man's eyes suddenly widened and rolled into the back of his head. His grip on Clint loosened as he dropped to the ground. Beckett stood behind the man, a large steel pipe in her hand; she had obviously just bashed the man on the head with it.

Clint gave her a grim nod, before stooping to the ground to pick up his bow again. He turned to face the remaining men that were streaming from the hall.

"How we doing, Nat?" Clint called as he moved to a new position. He let another arrow fly into the crowd of oncoming men. It hit its target, piercing the man's throat.

"We've had worse." Natasha shot back, as she fired off her gun and ducked behind the wall. Bullets from the enemy thudded into the wall.

Clint silently agreed. The morons couldn't have been too smart, since they didn't realize that by coming through the hallway door, they were basically forcing themselves to come through only one or two at a time, making it easy for Clint and Natasha to pick them off with their weapons.

"There can't be too many more." Castle exclaimed from where he was hiding behind his pillar.

As it turned out, Castle was right. After a few more minutes of the not too bright soldiers coming through the door, the flow slowed and then stopped altogether.

Clint cautiously stepped out from his pillar and prodded one of the dead soldiers with his toe.

"That was way easier than I thought." Clint said looking up to Natasha with a grin on his face.

She rolled her eyes in return, coming out from behind her pillar.

Clint turned his gaze to where Castle was standing, his brother's mouth opening and closing like he couldn't believe what had just happened.

Clint vaguely saw Beckett go to the hall door, poking her head through it, but most of his attention was on his brother.

"You're as good a shot as I remember." Clint said, walking forward until he was standing in front of Castle.

Castle regained some of his composure and nodded at Clint. "You too." He said. "I don't think you missed once." Castle added, awe in his voice.

Clint shrugged modestly, but felt his ego rising. "I could probably show you a few pointers, though guns aren't really my forte."

Castle rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to respond when there was a cry from the hallway door. Both Clint and Castle's heads snapped in the direction of the noise.

Tombstone was standing just in view with Beckett clasped against his ice hard chest. His forearm covered her throat, stopping anymore noise coming from the detective. She was trying not to show it, but the fear was evident in her wide eyes.

"Beckett!" Castle cried his voice cracking. He started to run forward, but was stopped by Clint. His brother held Castle's forearm with one hand and though Castle tried, there was no getting away from Clint.

"Stop!" Clint snapped. Castle glared at his bother and tried to wrench his arm out of Clint's grasp, but didn't succeed; Clint was a lot stronger than he remembered.

"But he's got Kate. That bastard is going to kill her." Castle hissed.

"I'm not going to let that happen." Clint snapped, his blue eyes flashing. "I let one of the Becketts die before and it's not going to happen. Not again."

Castle stopped his struggling, frowning at his brother. Slowly, he nodded and Clint released him.

Clint turned to face his former boss. "Let her go, Tombstone."

Tombstone laughed loudly. He shook Beckett. "She is my only ticket out of here." He spat back.

Tombstone started to move forward, where Clint, Natasha and Castle blocked the only exit. "You don't want to see her killed and I don't want to end up in jail again. So here's the deal, Clint, I walk out of here taking the lovely Katherine Beckett with me. You don't follow me and you don't call backup."

"You couldn't have me so you're taking the next best thing, right, Tombstone?" Clint snarled; bring his bow up with an arrow nocked.

Tombstone froze, "Don't even think about it, boy. You know that your puny arrow won't hurt me and you wouldn't risk me killing your beloved Beckett."

Castle touched Clint's arm and said, "Don't. You'll kill her."

Clint shrugged off Castle's hand. "I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?" Tombstone said. "Do you really want to see what happens if you shoot your arrow at me?"

"I know what's going to happen." Clint replied with a cocky grin. "You're going to die and Beckett will walk free."

"Try it." Tombstone snapped. "I dare you."

"Clint!" Castle pleaded, "You can't hurt him. You've tried to kill him before and he didn't die."

Clint didn't look at Castle; his gaze was focused on Tombstone. The muscles in his jaw jumped as he clenched his teeth.

"Do it." Beckett's voice rang out suddenly. Her eyes were hard and determined. "Take the shot, dammit."

"Kate, no!" Castle moaned.

Clint turned his gaze to Beckett. His face was mask and didn't show any emotion, but after a few moments Clint let out a cry of anger and slowly lowered his bow.

Tombstone's smile gleamed in the dim lighting. "Good boy." The man started to move forward, preparing to go through Clint and the others to get to the exit.

His footsteps were loud and deliberate, taking his time to walk the short distance across the room. "You've made the right decision, Clint." Tombstone said, his voice mocking the archer.

"I know." Clint said unexpectedly. In one fluid and sudden motion Clint brought his bow back up. A second later his arrow flew from his bow.

Castle let out a horrified yell and dived forward, knocking Clint to the ground.

"You son of a bitch!" He screamed at his brother, "You've killed her!"

Clint flipped Castle off him and sprang to his feet. "I haven't killed anyone but Tombstone."

Castle took a breath and looked to where Clint was pointing, afraid to see Beckett's dead body slumped to the ground. Instead, Tombstone was on his back, not moving. Beckett was in the process of untangling herself from the big man's deadly embrace.

"Kate…" Castle said in a strangled whisper. He got up to his feet and rushed forward.

Castle reached Beckett just as the detective stood to her feet. He crushed her to him in a tight embrace.

Clint moved forward and stopped next to Tombstone's body. An arrow was protruding from his former boss's eye; the one place where Tombstone didn't have the protection of his ice hard skin. The arrow had shot straight and true; it had entered Tombstone's right eye and had gone half way through the man's head before hitting the back of Tombstone's skull.

Clint nudged Tombstone's body with his booted toe and took a large gulp of air. He had done it; killed the man that had had him under his thumb for years. Finally, it was all over.

Natasha appeared next to his elbow and gave his arm a nudge. He looked at his friend and slowly smiled.

"I did good, didn't I?" He asked with a shit eating grin.

"Yeah." Natasha said, her own lips twitching into something close to a smile. "You did good."

* * *

_Tombstone didn't die when Clint stabbed him. The man had skin that was as hard as stone and the KA-BAR merely wounded him. The knife wound could barely be called that. It was shallow and didn't require much medical attention. Clint had been lucky that SHIELD had arrived on the scene when they had._

_Clint watched from the side of one the vehicles as the EMTs wheeled Tombstone out of the building. Clint's former boss was strapped down to the gurney so that he couldn't move, but Clint could feel fear prickling under his skin._

_He saw Tombstone's head turn so that he was looking over at Clint. Tombstone smiled and his teeth glinted in the glare of the headlights._

_"I'm coming for you, hawk." Tombstone mouthed silently before he was loaded onto the SHIELD ambulance._

_Clint shivered suddenly and pulled his jacket tighter against to his body._

_"Clint." Joanna's voice came from his left and he turned to look at her. Clint met her eyes for a second before he glanced down at his dirty boots._

_"I'm sorry." He mumbled. "I guess you see why Tombstone liked me so much."_

_"No." Joanna said, touching his arm with her hand. "I see a young man with so much potential to be the most amazing person that this world has ever seen. You can be anything you want, Clint. You can change the world."_

_Clint sniffled a little and reached up to scrub a hand across his nose. "Really?" He said skeptically, looking up._

_"Really." Joanna replied firmly. She pulled him closer to her and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. They stood like that, Clint wrapped in Joanna's embrace, for several moments._

_"It's time." A voice came from Clint's right causing Joanna to pull away. An apologetic man stood a respectful distance from the two._

_"Director Fury wants the boy on his way. He also requested me to tell you that you should be on your way home as well. Job well done." The young man gave Joanna a polite smile._

_Joanna turned to Clint. "Looks like this is it."_

_Clint nodded in return. She gave Clint's arm one final squeeze before she turned away._

_"Keep in touch." She said as she walked away. "I'll be seeing you soon, Hawkeye."_

* * *

**A/N: So here's the big chapter. Tombstone is finally dead and there's hugs all around. Seriously, though, this chapter was so hard to write and I'm still not happy with how it turned out. I hope it's good enough for all of you. ****Let me know if you see any mistakes (I didn't have anyone else look at this before I posted it) and I'll make sure to change them. **

**I'm really sorry that it's taken me so long to get this out to you all. I've had the worst writer's block with this chapter, as well as school and work. The next and final chapter should be out much faster. I have most of it written, I just need to add a few more parts and edit it and then I'll post it.**

**And, as always, I'm so grateful to all of the reviews, favorites and follows.**

**On a side note, the title for this chapter is from the song "Song of the Lonely Mountain" by Neil Finn. It's the song that plays in the credits of "The Hobbit." **


	11. Good Luck, Barton

**[Good Luck, Barton]**

"—_When you get back here I'm going to personally make sure that you don't see the light of day for months! You completely ignored my orders and could have gotten yourself and Agent Romanoff killed. Not to mention the two civilians that now know shit that they're not supposed to know!" _

"I understand you're upset, sir, but—," Clint winced as Fury cut him off again.

"_No, I don't think you do understand, Agent Barton, but you will as soon as you get back to SHIELD headquarters."_ There was an obnoxious clicking noise from Fury's side signaling the end of their conversation.

"Good chatting with you too, sir." Clint mumbling pulled the phone away from his ear.

"It went that well, huh?" Natasha said coming up next to Clint. He gave her a long suffering look.

"I thought Tombstone was bad, but I was wrong. Fury is going to kick my ass when I get back. I'm never going to see the light of day…or worse he's going to send me to some pointless mission in-the-middle-of-no-where New Mexico."

"It won't be that bad." Natasha said, "At least you're not babysitting some rich brat."

Clint gave her a questioning look. Natasha jerked her chin at the TV that was running the news in the background of Castle's house. On the screen, a middle aged man pranced in front of the camera blowing kisses and sending out winks that would have made many a women weak in the knees.

"Stark?" Clint said in some disbelief. "Fury is sending you to, what? Babysit that douche?"

Natasha nodded, "Me and Coulson." She added. Clint winced.

"I'm sorry." He said sincerely. "If that's what Fury is doing to you, I dread to see what he has planned for me."

Natasha suddenly whacked her partner's arm. "Stop being so dramatic, Clint."

"Ow!" Clint said in mock indignation, but dropped the act quickly. "Nat, I just want to make sure you know how grateful I am to you for your help. I don't think things would have gone as well as they did if you weren't there by my side."

"I'm always here, Clint, you know that."

"I know." Clint said softly. "Thank you."

There was a muffled sound from outside Castle's front door, making both Clint and Natasha's heads turn.

Clint's face paled, making Natasha laugh. "Buck up, Hawk boy, it's just your mom at the door."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Clint said stiffly.

Natasha patted him on the arm. "I'll going to make my escape out the window in the other room. You're on your own with this one." Clint gave her a pleading look as she left him alone in Castle's kitchen.

The lock on the front door clicked and then the door opened.

"For the last time, Richard, I'm moving. I don't see what the big hurry is to get into your house—," Martha stuttered to a stop as she locked eyes with her younger son.

Clint saw that Castle and Alexis were coming in behind his mother, but his focus was on Martha.

He cleared his throat and gave Martha a weak smile. "Hi, Mom."

Whatever Clint had been expecting it wasn't the slap to the face that Martha gave him. She marched right up to him and slapped him soundly across the face before she pulled him for a tight hug.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Martha mumbled her face buried against Clint's shoulder. "I drove you away. It was my fault that you ran away and never came back."

"It's not your fault, mom." Clint said quietly, "I was young and stupid. I didn't want to listen to you." There was a small smile in his words. "It doesn't matter anymore. I've grown up and I'm not as stupid as I was."

Martha let out a small laugh, she pulled away from Clint; keeping him at arm's length. She turned serious, "Where have you been, Clint? Do you know how long you've been gone?" The accusation was clear in her voice.

Clint had the decency to look ashamed. "I've been traveling, mom." Clint said, sidestepping the question as best as he could.

Martha raised her eyebrows, "They didn't have postcards where you were?"

Clint grinned sheepishly, but didn't say anything more. Fury would have his head on a plate if he said anything to his family about what he really did and he was in enough trouble as it was.

Clint was saved from having to say too much more, when Alexis stepped shyly forward.

"You're Alexis." Clint said. It wasn't a question, but Alexis nodded anyway.

"It's good to officially meet you." Clint said, grinning. He held out his hand for Alexis to shake; he didn't really think that she would appreciate being hugged by a man that she barely knew. Besides, he really wasn't the hugging type.

Alexis hesitantly reached her hand out, but was stopped by Martha.

"Oh, for heaven's sake! Give him a hug." Martha pushed Alexis forward, causing her to trip and stumble into her Uncle's arms.

Castle couldn't help the smile that slipped onto his lips; it was good to see his daughter finally meeting his good-for-nothing brother.

Clint and Alexis pulled apart, Clint with a happy smile on his face and Alexis looking like she couldn't believe what was going on.

"I think since we're all together," Martha announced, "we should sit down like a family and have lunch." Clint was already shaking his head, much to Alexis and Martha's dismay.

"I can't." Clint said, glancing down at his watch. "I really should be going now. I'm going to miss my flight." Castle's eyes narrowed. He could tell that Clint wasn't being entirely truthful, but he supposed that everything that had happened could have told him that Clint wasn't inclined to fill his brother in on the small details.

Martha's lips pursed and she narrowed her eyes. Clint took an alarmed step back; he knew that if he didn't make his escape soon Martha would never let him leave. He was saved from having to jump out the window when his phone buzzed. Clint reached into his pocket with relief and snagged his cell phone.

"Yes?" He said. "Oh, hey, Coulson." Clint turned to face the window, so that he wasn't staring at his family while he talked on the phone. As it was, he felt their eyes boring holes into his back.

_"Has Fury talked to you?"_ Coulson asked.

Clint grimaced. "Yeah, he's pissed…like usual."

_"As he should be."_ Coulson said tightly, _"What were you thinking going after Tombstone on your own?" _

"Well," Clint said somewhat amused at the emotion that was creeping into his handler's voice. "I wasn't alone. Nat was with me. Besides, you and I both know I generally don't think."

There was a sigh from the other end and Clint could just picture Coulson with his fingers pressed to his forehead attempting to ward off the headache that Clint caused.

_"We'll talk more about this later."_ Coulson finally said, _"Right now I need you back on base. You and Natasha will be going to meeting point two for pickup. You need to be there in ten minutes so I suggest you make your goodbyes and get your ass into gear."_ Clint nodded.

"Alright. I'm on my way…And, Coulson?" Clint paused. "Thank you." He didn't need to say what for. Coulson had known about Clint and Tombstone's past, but he hadn't pulled Clint out of the operation when it was revealed that Tombstone was behind the men sent to take Alexis.

_"You're welcome, Agent Barton. Travel safe."_ There was a click signaling that Coulson had hung up.

Clint put his phone away and turned back to face his family. "I have to go." He said, his voice leaving no room for argument. Even Martha knew that it would be useless to talk him out of it.

Clint moved past Martha, Alexis and Castle crossing the room to stand near the door. He pulled his jacket off the umbrella rack, where he had left it earlier that day. Clint shrugged the black coat on and zipped it up.

Castle noticed the grey eagle emblem that was sewn onto the shoulder of the jacket and he wondered for the thousandth time what Clint had gotten himself into.

Clint turned to face his family for the final time. "Looks like this is it." He said. "I'm not sure when I'll be able to see any of you for a while."

Martha came forward, followed closely by Alexis and Castle. "Don't worry, Clint, we'll be here when you get back." She hugged him tightly and Clint knew that there was an underlining threat in her words: _Don't you dare leave and never come back. I'll hunt you down myself, Clinton Francis Rogers._

"Thanks, mom." He said quietly and pulled out of her embrace. Clint turned his gaze to his niece and drew her in for another hug.

"I wish that I knew you better." Alexis said, but didn't press Clint to stay. Clint nodded as he stepped back. He wished that he could know Alexis better too, but unfortunately Clint doubted that he would see her again for many years.

Castle finally stepped forward and there was an awkward moment of uncertainty before Clint reached forward and pulled his older brother in for a firm hug. It was at that moment that Castle realized they were finally brothers again and he let a smile play across his lips.

"Take care of yourself, Rick." Clint said breaking out of the embrace. "And look after Beckett. If I hear that she's been hurt or anything I'm coming back and kicking your ass." His lips twitched into a grin and after one final look at his family, Clint turned and opened the door.

He stepped out into the hall and gave them all a wave and a wink before stuffing his hands into his pockets and setting down the hall. Within seconds Clint had disappeared from view.

The remaining members of the family were silent for a moment before Castle cleared his throat and turned to his mother and daughter.

"Looks like it's just us again."

Alexis shook her head, "No. He'll be back. Just wait, dad, he'll come back."

* * *

"_Barton?" Clint asked, his eyebrows rising. Nick Fury gave Clint his one eyed stare. _

"_Is that a problem?" _

"_No, it's just been awhile since I've had a last name." Fury snorted, shuffling the papers he had in his hand. _

"_Say goodbye to the name Rogers. You're never going to be associated with that name again." Clint nodded, serious. _

"_Here," Fury said, handing Clint the file of papers. "This is your information, Private Barton. The bus will pick you up tomorrow at three a.m. to take you to the military base where you will be spending the next few months at. After that, you'll go where the U.S. Marines so decide." _

_Clint swallowed. He knew that he was getting off easy. Most people in his position would have been sent to jail with no option of serving out their time any other way. He also knew that the man that stood before him now owned him. _

_Fury held up a picture of a mild looking man. "You will call in every Sunday and talk to this man. Coulson is your handler and will be all the contact you have with SHIELD until you have served your time." Clint kept all emotion off his face. _

"_Thank you, sir." Fury nodded impassively. _

"_Good luck, Barton."_

* * *

THE END

* * *

**A/N: Well, this is it. The story is all done. Not bad for a story that was supposed to be a one-shot. **

**I want to thank everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed and helped me along the way. I've had so much fun writing this story and I'm sad to see it go, but I think that it's a good ending. I hope that this hasn't let anyone down and everyone is pleased with this ending.  
**

**A few people have asked me if I plan to write a sequel and I don't think that I will be. At least not now. I don't have any plans for another story and I don't want to write more just for the sake of writing. But I will definitely be thinking about it. We'll see. **

**Also, I wrote a bonus scene for everyone and I will be posting that tomorrow after I add a few finishing touches to it (if I forget to update tomorrow feel free to bug me). **

**That's it, guys. THANK YOU SO MUCH! **


	12. Epilogue: Months Later

**[Months Later]**

Castle was pleased that he was finally putting his vacation house to good use. He had convinced Beckett, and his other friends at the precinct to come stay with him at his large house outside of New York City. His mother and Alexis had also come along and the house was quite full, but Castle didn't mind. He figured everyone could use a break after the last couple of months they had had.

Briefly, Castle's thoughts turned to his brother and he wondered where Clint was. He sighed and tried not to think about his brother, who had disappeared months earlier.

"Whatcha making?" Beckett's voice broke through his thoughts as she padded into the kitchen.

"Breakfast." Castle replied with a smile, happy to bring his mind back to the present. He continued to stir the pancake mixture as Beckett poured herself a cup of coffee.

The detective had just taken a seat at the counter to watch Castle work when there was a muffled cry from the other room followed by the sound of pounding feet. Castle and Beckett exchanged confused looks.

Ryan came running into the kitchen his eyes wide with panic, "Turn on the TV! Turn on the TV!" He yelped, skidding to a stop by Beckett.

Castle frowned, not understanding what was going on, but he set down the pancake mixture and started to look for the remote control that operated the large TV that hung in the kitchen.

The noise Ryan had made brought Esposito, Landy, Alexis and Martha all to the kitchen. Most of them were still in their pajamas, but they all shared similar looks of confusion.

They gathered around the counter as Ryan snapped at Castle, "Hurry!"

Castle gave the detective an irritated look as he finally found the remote hiding under a stack of old newspapers and clicked the TV on.

The large TV glowed to life and everyone turned to see what Ryan was trying to show them.

A news reporter was in the middle of her sentence when the TV flickered and turned on, "―have yet to be told exactly what attacked New York City yesterday, but we have been assured that they will not be coming back."

Everyone's face blanched at the thought of their home attacked and Beckett gave Castle a glare.

_"What?"_ He complained, "How is this my fault! I didn't attack New York!"

"You insisted that we all turn our phones off yesterday so that we 'wouldn't be distracted by the great outdoors.'" Before Castle could do much more than give her a wounded looked, they were shushed by the others.

The reporter continued, "However, we do know that many people are claiming that New York City was saved by a group of people that are being called the Avengers. We have reason to believe that Tony Stark's Iron Man is part of this group." There was a shaky clip of Iron Man's red and gold suit flying across the screen in the midst of explosions and dark objects.

"People have sent in images and videos of the so-called heroes…Be aware that some images are disturbing," The news reporter said.

This time the grainy clip that was shown was of two blonde haired men fighting side by side. The one with the longer hair was wearing some sort of armor and wielding a hammer, while the other man was wearing a blue suit and carrying a shield. Both were fighting off tall, dark objects that faintly resembled people, but were most definitely not human.

Castle was sure that he had seen the man in the blue suit before, but those thoughts were chased out of his mind as another figure came onto the screen. It was a red-haired woman firing two guns, her face stoic.

The camera swiveled to her right just in time to see another man come sliding across the street, a bow clasped in his hands. He sprang to his feet, sending an arrow flying from his bow.

There was a strangled gasp from Castle, which was echoed by everyone else in the room; they knew who those two people were. The clips were cut and the news reporter came back on screen.

She continued, "We have not been able to interview to any of these people, not even Tony Stark." She added with a wry smile, "However, our very own Matt Young was able to catch up to a few of these so called Avengers early today."

The screen changed and now showed a handsome man, who appeared to be chasing after the two people that Castle knew to be Agent Carter and his brother, Clint.

"Do you have anything to say to the people of New York after destroying half the city?" The reporter called, holding his microphone out in front of him.

Clint came to an abrupt stop and turned around to face the camera, his eyes narrowing. His red haired friend sighed and came to stand next to him, crossing her arms over her black suit.

Castle couldn't help but notice the exhaustion that clouded Clint's face and the small cut at the edge of his hairline or how his eyes seemed to have a haunted look about them.

"Yeah, actually," Clint said and despite his appearance his was voice strong as he jabbed a finger at Matt Young, "If it wasn't for us you and the _whole_ city would be gone. Not to mention the rest of the world. So you can take your microphone and shove it―," The clip was hurriedly ended and then the news cut to commercial.

There was complete silence in the kitchen, all of them exchanging incredulous glances with each other.

Castle let out a strangled cry and sputtered out, "I knew it! Clint is a spy!"

* * *

**A/N: Now we're done for real. **

**THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! **


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